Debuts - sculpture by UMCS students

Eleven sculpture students from Lublin’s Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (UMCS) show reliefs and busts in the open air, in the Rosarium of the university’s Botanical Garden. The show is not inside the Kościuszko Manor House but in the rose garden on the slope below it, and it runs until 31 October 2026. The garden publishes no English text, so the quotation below is our translation of its Polish description.

UMCS Botanical Garden on the exhibition:

“Debuts” is a group exhibition by students of the Department of Sculpture and Ceramics of the UMCS Faculty of Arts.

The exhibition presents reliefs and busts. Relief is a form seen less often in exhibition spaces today, which makes the mature and accomplished reliefs presented by the students all the more welcome.

The bust, a classic subject of sculpture, has been treated here in a very individual way - the authors chose for themselves the figures they wanted to portray. The resulting works become, to a large extent, an artistic mirror of the young generation.

What to expect

This is an outdoor show in the Rosarium, the garden’s rose collection: about 500 species and cultivars spread over one hectare of gentle slope on the hill where the manor house stands. This site has no separate profile for the garden, so the show is listed under the Kościuszko Manor House; you do not need to go into the building to see it.

The garden gives neither the number of works nor their titles. Apart from the poster, the exhibition page and the May announcement carry three uncaptioned photos: a patinated relief of a village scene (a small church, a timber barn, a fence, ducks), a second relief with a woman’s portrait framed by ornament, and a white bust of a young woman, photographed while still in the studio. So there is no telling who made which piece.

The poster names the eleven students: Yevheniia Dychok, Julia Gajos, Łucja Kotwica, Alicja Kosmala, Tomasz Komsta, Polina Kolodina, Joanna Kuśmierz, Monika Letkiewicz, Kacper Gaczkowski, Aleksandra Poleszak and Anastazja Krystyńska. It gives the curator as Piotr Zieleniak, a sculptor in the UMCS Department of Sculpture and Ceramics. The opening was at 13:00 on 1 June 2026 beside the manor, together with “Prologue” and “Young Movie”; the garden billed all three as a “Master and Student” series.

Context

A relief is sculpture that stays attached to its background: the figures rise from a slab of stone, metal or wood instead of standing free in space. For centuries it mostly decorated buildings, although it often stands as a work in its own right. A bust shows a person from the shoulders up, a classic portrait format in both sculpture and painting.

This is not the first time UMCS sculpture students have shown in the garden. In 2025, for the garden’s 60th anniversary, Faculty of Arts students supervised by Piotr Zieleniak made “Urban Jungle”, sculptures of hybrid animals placed around the grounds for visitors to hunt down. This season Zieleniak also has an outdoor show of his own in the garden, “Reminiscences”, beside the manor house.

Tickets and time

The garden ticket is enough: 16 PLN standard, 11 PLN reduced. That is our reading, not the garden’s statement: neither the exhibition page nor the price list mentions the show by name. The basis is that the sculptures stand outdoors, while the extra in the combined ticket (18 PLN and 15 PLN) pays for going inside the Kościuszko Manor House. A family ticket is 45 PLN, and children under five get in free.

There is no free day for everyone. The free Monday applies only to holders of the Lublin Senior Card, and UMCS alumni card holders enter the garden free; the rules are on the garden’s discount page .

Hours change with the month. According to the table on the opening hours page , the garden opens daily at 9:00 and closes at 18:00 (6 PM) until the end of September and at 17:00 in October. The same page says, without naming months, that tickets are sold until 17:30 and the exit gate closes at 18:30. The manor-house hours listed there in text do not apply to the Rosarium. In October, plan to arrive before 16:00.

The show itself takes 15-20 minutes; allow 2-3 hours for the whole garden, which covers 21.25 hectares according to its own website . In the rain, everything here is out in the weather.

English on site: the exhibition page exists only in Polish, and the garden says nothing about English labels, audio guides or tours. Reliefs and busts need no text to follow.

Who it is for: anyone following young sculpture in Lublin, and anyone heading to the garden anyway; the Rosarium combines easily with the three outdoor shows by the manor. Who can skip it: anyone who would cross the city to the Sławinek district for this show alone. It is a student show in a rose garden, not a reason for a separate trip.

What the press says

No English-language coverage was found, and nobody has reviewed the show, as of 27 September 2026. There are two news pieces in Polish, both relaying the organisers’ description:

• Student News (27 May 2026, unsigned): a notice of the 1 June openings at 13:00 that presents “Debuts” as part of the “Master and Student” series, alongside “Prologue” and “Young Movie”, and places all three shows in the Rosarium - link .
• Lublin112 (18 July 2026, Leszek Mikrut): a summer photo report on the three shows of the series that names all eleven “Debuts” students and says one show stands by the manor and two in the Rosarium - link .

See also

• Prologue - sculpture by Kacper Gaczkowski - a solo show by one of the “Debuts” students, in the same Rosarium and on the same dates.
• Reminiscences - sculpture by Piotr Zieleniak - the curator’s own sculptures, outdoors beside the manor, on the same garden ticket.
• Young Movie - student animations played from QR codes beside the manor, opened on the same day as “Debuts”.
• Kościuszko Manor House - the manor in the garden, with indoor shows on the combined ticket.

Opening hours and prices are on the UMCS Botanical Garden’s website (Polish only): opening hours and ticket prices ; the exhibition text is on the exhibition page .

Museum profile: Kościuszko Manor House .