The Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences is a research institution operating in the field of humanities, in the discipline of art studies. As a result of the evaluation of the activities of academic institutions for the years 2017–2021, the Institute received the highest category A+ for the third time.
The Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences focuses on researching and documenting Polish art and artistic culture, taking into account the European and global context. These tasks cover the fields of art history, musicology, theatre studies and film studies. The IS PAN's scientific achievements are distinguished by its long-term team projects, which have resulted in monumental source publications: the Catalogue of Art Monuments in Poland, Monumenta Musicae in Polonia, Dictionary of Polish Artists, Polish Artistic Life, Polish Folk Song and Music. In addition, the Institute publishes five academic quarterly journals – Biuletyn Historii Sztuki (Art History Bulletin), Muzyka (Music), Pamiętnik Teatralny (Theatre Memoir), Kwartalnik Filmowy (Film Quarterly) and Konteksty (Contexts) – which are highly regarded not only in the field of art studies, but also in other humanities disciplines.
The Academic Board of the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences is authorised to award doctoral and postdoctoral degrees in the field of humanities, in the discipline of art studies. The training and promotion of new academic staff takes place at the Anthropos Doctoral School. The Institute also runs postgraduate studies in art studies.
The Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences has valuable collections of archival materials for art research: Collections of Photographs and Measurement Drawings, Phonographic Collections, Special Collections and Theatre Documentation, collections of 20th and 21st century architecture and visual arts documentation. The ongoing digitisation of the collections is supported by the initiatives of the DARIAH.PL digital humanities consortium, of which the Institute has been a member since 2015. The resources are made available through, among others, the dynamically developing digital repositories Etnofon and dLibra. The Institute's research workshop also includes a specialist library with over 145,000 volumes of books and over 30,000 serial publications.
The significant seminar and conference activity of the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, covering the full range of art sciences, with online access to many scientific events, serves a wide audience. It contributes to the development of cooperation with other research centres in Poland and abroad which is reflected in the implementation of joint projects, the exchange of research findings and study visits.
