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Annual Report 2002

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Annual Report 2002

Publishing Program

The activities of the Publishing Program were addressed to publishers of books and periodicals dealing with social and cultural issues and, indirectly, also to readers. We supported production of publications which, while being important works of high substantive quality, stood little chance of commercial success.

Books

Since 2000 we have concentrated our efforts on introduction to wider readership of quality titles that illustrate the present stage of intellectual discourse in our region. Our choice of such a subject matter was informed by the belief that modern humanities and literature from these countries were not sufficiently familiar to the average Pole, a fact which has its consequences in lacking knowledge about the culture and the present day of societies with which we share geographic borders as well as a common past and joint challenges for the future. The ambitious undertakings of those who work to bring such „Eastern” books among readers would be doomed to failure without the benefit of additional funding; accordingly, we provide grants towards the translation into Polish of books dealing with the humanities and social sciences and of modern essays and prose written by authors from Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and from the former Soviet Union. Grants for covering part of the publication costs were co-financed by the Next Page Foundation and Open Society Institute as part of the East Translates East project. Apart from the third edition of this competition for publishers, we published in 2002 with the Sic! Publishing House a Polish translation of Pierre Hassner’s The End of Axioms. Essays on War, Peace and Violence. After Corruption and Governments by Susan Rose-Ackerman, The End of Axioms is another of our publications devoted to issues we found to be of particular relevance and therefore worth addressing in our programs.

Cultural Journals

For many years, the Foundation has consistently supported the publication of cultural magazines and the periodicals of national minorities. We considered this an important task, since these periodicals stimulate various initiatives in the area of culture, are an attractive form of participation in public life, and provide their readers with high-quality commentaries and critical reviews. We promoted the most interesting and creative ventures that became focal points of cultural life, stimulated various projects and generated ideas and values that later became part of a wider cultural milieu. Since our aim was to support editors in adjusting to the free market economy, the criteria applied in the assessment of applications included high professional standards and the value of the materials published, the managerial proficiency of editors, budget viability, and promotional activities. We supported and – through the Journals Showcase project – ourselves pursued activities geared at the promotion of technical and organizational solutions providing for greater outreach among readers and for the reduction of the periodicals’ production and distribution costs (publication, on-line promotion and sales, etc.).

Grants were extended on a competition basis. Twice a year, we accepted applications from the publishers of non-commercial, low print run social and cultural journals who had put out at least three issues of their title; we did not award grants for the establishment of a new title, and we did not extend continuous sponsorship to any one recipient. We did not offer support to scientific, specialty, or religious titles, to periodicals maintained by political parties and the state administration, or to local newspapers or bulletins. In addition, we held the first edition of a closed competition for 15 magazines which had been supported by the Foundation the most often (selection criteria: a minimum of 3 grants awarded by the Foundation between January 1998 and May 2001; average grant larger than PLN 4 000). These magazines received grants to cover partial publishing costs in 2002 and 2003.

The Journals Showcase

Our grantmaking activity was pursued in parallel with the Journals Showcase project aimed to promote cultural magazines and, on a broader level, encourage readership, as well as to provide the publishers and editors with technical and organizational solutions enabling them to reduce production and distribution costs and to reach new readers (free software for the creation of electronic publications and archives, sale of on-line subscriptions). Another important element of the project lies in the encouragement of cultural journal subscriptions among individual readers and libraries. This part of the project centers upon the http://witryna.czasopism.pl portal addressed to all those who wish to take an active part in cultural discourse; we take advantage of Internet technology to provide them with easier access to quality periodicals. The http://witryna.czasopism.pl portal features full data on more than 430 magazines (in Polish and English), covers and tables of content (updated on a regular basis since 2000), new issues, editorial press reviews, reprints of top stories from cultural magazines. We published 82 authors in the 43 issues of the Journals Showcase Gazette: from beginners to Czesław Miłosz. The portal supports subscription of newly published issues of magazines, offers subscription sheet printouts and, in the case of some magazines, enables credit card payment for subscription. The Journals Showcase is implemented under the auspices of Gazeta Wyborcza which regularly publishes texts developed by the Showcase team, the internet portal polityka.onet.pl that reprints from the Showcase and Channel One of Public Television. Since its outset, the Journals Showcase project has been implemented in collaboration with the FA-art Publishing House.

The Publishing Program was wound up on December 31, 2002. The Foksal Gallery Foundation has received a two-year grant from the Batory Foundation to continue the Journals Showcase project in cooperation with the FA-art Publishing House.

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