More than culture: The UK–Poland Season as a test of relations in a post-Brexit Europe
Relations between Britain and Poland remain obscured by issues such as Brexit and foreign policy realignment. Nevertheless, the realm of cultural diplomacy can prove a suitable forum for maintaining and strengthening links outside of government actions.
September 9, 2025 -
Zula Rabikowska
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Stories and ideas
Night of Photography 2024. Photo: Tomasz Kaczor / Muzeum Warszawy
When Polish and British artists meet this year for the UK–Poland Season 2025 — a programme of over one hundred events across forty cities — they are doing more than celebrating creativity. They are testing the strength of a relationship shaped by war, migration, and a rapidly changing Europe, which is now being renegotiated in the wake of Brexit and ongoing tensions on the continent’s borders.
Poland has become one of Britain’s closest partners in Central and Eastern Europe: a NATO ally, a frontline state in supporting Ukraine, and a source of one of the UK’s largest migrant communities. Yet this closeness has not always translated into cultural understanding. The Season, organized by the British Council, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, and Polish Cultural Institute, seeks to fill that gap by highlighting artistic innovation that underpins diplomacy.
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Culture, diaspora, Poland-UK relations, Polish
