Director of the National Library receives the City of Warsaw Award
Dr Tomasz Makowski, Director of the National Library, received the City of Warsaw Award on Friday, 31 July 2026, during a ceremonial session of the Warsaw City Council, traditionally held on the eve of the anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising.
The citation accompanying the Award stated, among other things: “one of the architects of the National Reading Development Programme. Under his leadership, the Palace of the Commonwealth on Krasiński Square was renovated and, in 2024, opened to the public free of charge for the first time since it was built in the 17th century. He is the author and curator of the permanent exhibition of treasures from the National Library’s collections presented there. He also oversaw the redevelopment of the reading rooms at the Library’s main building on Niepodległości Avenue.”
The recipients also included Marek Dutkiewicz, one of Poland’s best-known songwriters; Elżbieta Ficowska, who was rescued from the Warsaw Ghetto by Irena Sendler and who donated to the National Library the archive of her husband, Jerzy Ficowski, together with manuscripts by Bruno Schulz; Grażyna Hase, a renowned fashion designer; Professor Hanna Kirchner, editor of Zofia Nałkowska’s diaries held by the National Library; Professor Jan Kofman, a distinguished historian and former director of PWN; Dr Agnieszka Morawińska, an art historian and former director of Zachęta and the National Museum; Grzegorz Piątek, writer and architectural historian; Professor Maria Poprzęcka, long-serving chair of the Association of Art Historians and director of the Institute of Art History at the University of Warsaw; Małgorzata Szejnert, co-founder of Gazeta Wyborcza and creator of its reportage section, who donated a substantial part of her archive to the National Library; and Bogna Świątkowska, cultural organiser, president of the Bęc Zmiana Foundation, and co-author of the National Library exhibition Something That Is Coming. Architecture of the 21st Century.
