Gala opening of the Fryderyk Chopin Museum at 1 Okólnik Street in Warsaw took place on March 1, 2010. On March 6, the Museum was opened to broad public. The form enabling booking tickets and the price list are available at the website www.chopin.museum.

The museum has undergone a comprehensive modernization according to new functional solutions for the institution, with the museum space, also encompassing a new concert room, being enlarged by 90% as compared to its previous size. The new Fryderyk Chopin Museum, the "Chopin Museum" is a multimedia centre, where various expression means are employed: for example the visitor has access to varied audio track made of compositions, sound landscapes, and radio theatre elements. Other pieces of the mosaic are: audio-video recordings broadening the knowledge about the exhibits in the showcases, such as virtual books, interactive presentations of games for children and projections constituting a component part of the stage design. The spectator and his needs are treated individually here, and the profile of the tour each time is adjusted to the visitor’s expectations.

The exhibition presented on four floors shows facts from life and work of Fryderyk Chopin in various aspects.

According to the idea of an open museum, Fryderyk Chopin is presented among others from the perspective of his work, his personal life or via stories of women he loved without any defined for the visitor route in the Museum. Thanks to the RFID technology employed to produce tickets, visitors can choose the duration and intensity of the content of the given track. The spectator will encounter many exhibits focused on with the lighting and sound effects, it draws his attention to the most important for him elements of the exhibition.

Alicja Knast, the curator of the Fryderyk Chopin Museum explains that the assumption of the initiators was to "turn visiting the Museum into an adventure, travel to places which influenced creative personality of Chopin and through space he created. It is a Museum fit for the 21st century and for Chopin’s genius."

Investment

The competition for the project of realization of the Museum's permanent multimedia exhibition was decided on in August 2008. Thirty-two ateliers participated. The best proposition came from Migliore+Servetto atelier belonging to two Italian architects: Ico Migliore and Mara Servetto who realize architectural projects for buildings and interiors and realization of the conception of interactive exhibition for museums and institutions.

The investment was financed from the funds of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and from the Operational Programme Infrastructure and Environment. The Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw has the content and realization supervision over the the Fryderyk Chopin Museum "Chopin Museum". The Museum was the central point of Chopin Year Celebrations 2010 and at present it is the most important national institution commemorating the great composer.

Collection

The largest in the world collection of documents related to Fryderyk Chopin offers manuscripts and printouts of music, letters by Chopin, his relatives and friends, souvenirs (pins, calendars, etc), iconography, and biographical works and comments dedicated to his compositions and their reception.

The collection has been gathered since 1899 by the Warsaw Music Society, since 1934 by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute and since 1953 by the Fryderyk Chopin Society. Final actions have been taken by the National Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw. As a result the collection has found its place in the renewed seat in Ostrogski Palace.

History

The history of the Palace dates back to its foundation by Duke Janusz Ostrogski in the beginning of the 17th century. In the 80s of the 17th century, the crown vice-chancellor Jan Gniński ordered Tylman van Gameren to design a palace residence. The architect created drawings of a large palace undertaking which was never realized. Today’s Palace, constructed on a previous bulwark, is located in the planned kitchen. The palace has had various functions; it was reconstructed in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In 1859 the Institute of Music (pl. Instytut Muzyczny) started to operate there, later, in 1919, it gained the name of Conservatory. Those institutions cultivated the activities by the Department of Music at the Department of Fine Arts of the Royal University of Warsaw, from which Fryderyk Chopin graduated. In the beginning of the previous century, a concert pavilion was constructed next to the palace; however it was not reconstructed after the war.

After devastation of the war in 1944, on the basis of the plans by Tylman van Gameren, drawings by Zygmunt Vogl and paintings by Canaletto, the palace was reconstructed in 1949 – 1954 according to the project by Mieczysław Kuźma. During the post-war work the efforts aimed at constructing a building in its shape dating back to the end of the 17th century. Since 1861, the Institute of Music had its seat, in a way it continued the work of the Main School of Music (closed in 1831) where Fryderyk Chopin attended lessons during 1826-1829.

This architectural treasure of Warsaw was reconstructed according to baroque-classicist patterns and at present it has been thoroughly renovated to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Fryderyk Chopin's birth. The assumptions of the permanent exhibition developed in the way of discussion can be summarized in the following goal: to present the composer in the light of documents from his times, taking into consideration the qualities and borders of perception and with the use of achievements of modern media.