Maja Piotrowska
Her professional preparation includes creation of art, art history, theory and philosophy, the practice and theory of graphic design. She currently works as a teacher of advertising subjects in two technical schools in Kielce, Poland, and as a teacher creating and conducting original practical and theoretical programs devoted to the knowledge of art and the practice of art, in a high school in Warsaw and in a cultural center in Podkowa Leśna, Poland.
Maja graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź, Poland, specializing in publishing graphic design. She also completed doctoral studies in philosophy at the University of Warsaw, in the Department of Aesthetics, during which she was focused on issues such as modern aesthetics, history of philosophy of art, phenomenology of perception, theories of imagination, philosophical hermeneutics, philosophical interpretation of film. In 2015-2016, during her partial doctoral studies at the University of Padua as part of the Erasmus+ program for doctoral students, she studied philosophy and selected subjects in the field of psychology (developmental cognitive neuroscience, psychology of environment), art history (history of animation) and museography (museography of industrial heritage). She devoted her doctoral thesis research to issues related to the perception and reception of color. In 2024, she completed a three-semester postgraduate pedagogical academic course (diploma dissertation on the history and theory of adult education). She is currently implementing a three-semester postgraduate course for teachers supporting the education of students with autism spectrum disorders. She has completed numerous trainings, primarily for educators and teachers.
In her professional life, Maja has been involved in art and graphic design, she has been teaching practical artistic skills (drawing, painting, traditional graphic techniques, design, computer graphics), history and theory of art, history of philosophy and culture, creation and production of advertising, organization of advertising campaigns.
She has participated in many group exhibitions and has created several individual ones, the most important of which was a solo exhibition at the Opus Film Gallery in Łódź (a gallery of producers of films known and awarded internationally, who created titles such as Ida and Cold War). Right after her art studies, Maja joined an organisation called Book Art Museum (Łódź, Poland), under the auspices of which she designed unique prints and co-created art books. For many years she carried out commercial design assignments. Since 2009, she has been running weekly original workshops for children and youth entitled New Forms of Art, at the Centre for Culture and Civic Initiatives in Podkowa Leśna, during which she creates experimental works inspired by art, including contemporary and the latest art, with children and youth. In connection with her work at the cultural centre, her European fascinations have developed – as an active speaker, she took part in a several-year Grundtvig programme dedicated to ecological education; lectures and workshops combined with learning about the traditions of the participating country and region took place in several European countries. In the international environment she also worked as a guide and educator at the National Museum in Warsaw (2017-23).
Maja Piotrowska has experience in academic teaching (program courses, annual author seminars, tutoring), as well as in organizing academic, museum and school workshops and promotional events. She has actively participated in many international conferences, published texts on issues in the field of philosophical aesthetics and cultural history (most of them are available on academia.edu). Her students and educational projects she has participated in have won numerous awards and distinctions. In schools and privately, she often works with autistic students. With interested students, she creates books, prints and short films, from a conceptual idea to a finished production/object. She incorporates the latest technologies into her teaching process. She is fascinated by the processes of learning and teaching others.
