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Artur Rojek: Cultural Manager of the Year

Artur Rojek, the creator and artistic director of the OFF Festival, has won the title of this year’s “Best Cultural Manager.” The distinction was presented as part of TVP Kultura’s annual Guarantee of Culture awards, given to the season’s most interesting artists and cultural events. The jury recognized Rojek for his “proactive thinking and for creating a musical event that serves as an antidote to most crude and gaudy media spectacles.”

The award is the latest in a series of distinctions won by Artur Rojek and the OFF Festival this year. The 2011 edition of the festival received the European Festival Award for best Best Medium-Sized Festival and was proclaimed the event of the year by listeners of Radio 3’s cultural news program, Radiowy Dom Kultury.

OFF Festival has been held annually since 2006. The first editions took place at the “Słupna” water park in Mysłowice, before the festival moved to Katowice’s Dolina Trzech Stawów in 2010. The seventh edition will be held this year on August 2–5, and will feature such acts as Iggy and the Stooges, Swans, Thurston Moore, Battles, Metronomy, and over 80 other alternative music performers.
 
The summer festival is preceded by a club event, created to help OFF Festival make it through the long months between subsequent editions of the festival. This year, OFF Club will feature a new and revamped format. May 11-13, at the Światowid Cinema in Katowice, audiences will see Barn Owl, A Hawk And A Hacksaw, and Tim Hecker perform music to film by Anka and Wilhelm Sasnal, Sergei Parajanov, and Werner Herzog.