Abstract

The article addresses the problem of the culture-creating role of museums designed by Mieczysław Treter in the first years of the Second Polish Republic – an art historian from Lviv, the curator of the Museum of the Lubomirski family name in Lviv and the director of the State Art Collection in Warsaw. The publicist of this author is a testimony of how in the first years after Poland regained independence, attempts were made to develop a new way of thinking about the culture-forming function, status and formula of Polish museums, adequate to the changed realities of life in a free state. It formulated the postulate of treating museums as an institution of Polish cultural policy, an institution supporting the rebuilding of an independent state and its status on the international arena. In the perspective of the perceived role of museum outlets, the way of thinking about culture understood as a constant update of historical values was revealed at the same time. The museum discourse of Treter also revealed the shortcomings of extra-banking thinking about culture, which on the threshold of independence – on the one hand – was to be harnessed in state-building processes, and on the other – to realize values developed in the years of national captivity.