Illustration: Galician School. Copy of antique needlepoint lace, 1905.
The first thing to mention about Galicia is that this article refers to the Austrian province of Galicia, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, rather than the region of North-West Spain. That the Austrian province no longer exists as an entity but has been subsequently incorporated within the modern boundaries of Poland and Ukraine should also be mentioned.
Galicia was the north eastern province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It had once been part of an independent Poland, a nation that had been ruthlessly carved up between the three Empires of Austria, Germany and Russia. Although not existing as a political entity throughout the nineteenth century, only reappearing at the end of the First World War, this by no means meant, despite the rigours of the three empires, that Poles and their culture disappeared. The identity of the Polish nation was maintained and reinforced, very often through cultural formats, so that the struggle for an independent identity could be maintained, as it was through the entire nineteenth century.
Of the three empires, the Austrian section of the Polish people was largely contained within Galicia, and relatively speaking, Galician Poles fared much better than those in Germany and Russia. The Polish cultural identity was both maintained and promulgated. The two major cities of the province Cracow (Krakow) and Lemberg (Lviv), both had Polish speaking universities, and Krakow especially became a focal point for a range of Polish creative endeavours including fine art, music, literature and various handcrafts. It was at Krakow that the Polish Arts and Crafts movement was largely centred.
Although the Austrian government of the nineteenth and early twentieth century is often seen as reactionary, intransigent and extremely heavy-handed when dealing with its different minorities within the Empire, there were attempts to promulgate some form of connectedness within the disparate groups. Austrian authorities were well aware that their empire was a multi-cultural construct that could easily fall apart without a concerted effort to maintain its cohesion. Although the authorities often insisted that German be the official state language and Austrians tended to fair much better within the Empire than many of the minorities, there was active definition and regionalism, particularly within the larger ethnic groups where native languages and cultural heritage and creativity were allowed to develop, relatively speaking.
Illustration: The Austrian Province of Galicia.
In the context of both tying together the different ethnic groups, but also allowing a certain amount of regional expression, a network of design schools were set up across the Empire. These often pursued art and craft disciplines that were native to regions, so that wood carving would be encouraged in one region, glass making in another and lace in yet another. The idea being that both employment and regional identity through craft could be developed. This would result in the production of state sanctioned decorative work that would in some ways express the positiveness of the multi-ethnic Empire, rather than its divisions.
As with the other schools across the Empire, the Galician School produced students that were intended to be both future teachers and makers. Although there was an element of regionalism within the schools and a connectedness with local communities and cultural formats, there was still a heavy reliance on centralisation and the belief that regional groups should owe allegiance to the Empire. Curriculums and standards were still maintained and enforced from Vienna and even much of the design work including lace patterns that students were to produce within the schools, were designed in Vienna and then sent out to each regional school. Some of these designs were produced in the latest styles, particularly that of Art Nouveau. However, others, as in the case of the example shown above, were reproductions of traditional design work which were sometimes Austrian, but often from various European origins. However, within any creative educational establishment, it is interesting to note how the local community, its traditions and cultural heritage often impinge. How much so was the case within the Austrian network of design schools and how that effected future teachers and makers is unknown. That it must at least have had an indirect effect seems probable.
In many respects this was an extraordinary adventure for a traditionally bureaucratic and reactionary government. Although not entirely unique, as different systems were being created in different parts of Europe, the system of design schools set up by the Austrian government was admired across Europe and was even discussed in North America.
Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire was dismantled at the end of the First World War, and Galicia became part of the new Republic of Poland, some of the elements that had been part of the Austrian system were taken into the new Poland. Krakow for example, is still considered to be the cultural centre of Poland and the art, design and craft elements that had been such an important part of the of the Polish maintenance of their identity within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was maintained and built on through much of the twentieth century.
Although the system of design schools was short-lived, after the dismantling of the Empire each newly independent region would have taken those design schools within its own system. Whether they decided to maintain, encourage or shut down the schools, would have been a decision only they could make.
Further reading links:
The Idea of Galicia: History and Fantasy in Habsburg Political Culture
Music in the Culture of Polish Galicia, 1772-1914 (Rochester Studies in Central Europe)
Cracow (Eyewitness Travel Guides)
Cracow, the royal capital of ancient Poland: its history and antiquities
Cracow: An Illustrated History
Polish Art and Architecture, 1890-1980: An outline history of Polish 20th century art and architecture
Early Polish Modern Art: Unity in Multiplicity
Out Looking In: Early Modern Polish Art, 1890-1918
An Outline History of Polish Applied Art
Cracow: A treasury of Polish culture and art
A Survey of Polish Literature and Culture
