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The first Polish Arts Festival has been established, with the help of Hungry Arts, Suffolk County Council and Ipswich Borough Council to celebrate the county's burgeoning Polish community and culture.

"We have got the Polish ambassador coming over so it must be significant," explained Ros Green, one of the event organisers and Director of Hungry Arts.

Polish food

"We're doing it because given the fact that there are at least 12,000 Poles living around the Suffolk area, we should get to know the neighbours and the neighbours should get to know us."

Ros, along with her colleague Gosia Trojanowska-Hobson, has received a huge amount of support from the Polish Cultural Institute and The Arts Council along with local councils and hope that this year's event will be the first of many.

"When we started off we weren't aware that there weren't many of these going on and the support we've had has been amazing so we hope to see this grow and grow."

The event hopes to reach out to people across Suffolk, not just the Polish community, and offer people an opportunity to come together, experience Polish culture and hopefully find new ways of getting to know new people.

1118 Miles

Visual art forms a big part of the Arts Festival, with the 1118 Miles exhibition opening at the Town Hall Galleries on 13 September and running until 1 November.

The title of the exhibition represents the geographical distance between two capital cities London and Warsaw.

The work looks at the emotional distance experienced by those Poles living and working in the UK from their friends and family at home.

Iwona working on her stencils

The exhibition introduces young emerging Polish artists whose work uses a range of mediums including video and paint.

Iwona Zjac's new work for the exhibition encompasses a street art theme and expresses her relationship with her family.

"I was thinking about new projects and looking at my stencils, a lot of which are here with me," explained Iwona.

"I've made some political stencils and social stencils but now my focus is changing and it's more about my family."

'Family' by Iwona ZajÄ…c

"It is like with my stencils I can create my family and take them with me around the world."

Iwona's work along with that of Karol Radziszewski, Wojciech Doroszuk, Agata Borową and Twożywo is curated by Katarzyna Szydłowska and Konrad Schiller.

Polish Film Screenings

From Tuesday 16 to Saturday 20 September the Hollywood Film Theatre based at the Ipswich Corn Exchange will host a range of Polish films.

Titles include Time to Die, The Wedding, Hope, My Nikifor and Midnight Talks.

"The films are a real selection of popular recent releases, many of which have been real hits in Poland," explained Steve Mann, Manager of the Hollywood Film Theatre.

"We're happy to be part of the festival and to offer something that appeals to all different parts of the local community, hopefully with something people haven't seen before."

Mazury Polish Dance Company

All films will be in Polish with English subtitles available.

Polski Picnic

The cornerstone of the Polish Arts Festival is the Polski Picnic which takes place on Sunday 21 September .

The picnic will feature a mixture of music, dance and crafts with performances by Poland's popular world music act The Warsaw Village Band along with The Mazury Folk Dance Company and The Kopi Katz band.

There will also be a range of traditional Polish food and drinks available for visitors to sample and organisers are keen to see as many people as possible at the event.

"We believe that a bit of music, a bit of dance and some food and drink are the best way of doing things because food is often the quickest way of breaking down barriers," explained Ros.