The Gloria Artis medal will be awarded to Ryszard Kott on September 4 at 6 p.m. at the Polish Cultural Center.
The Gloria Artis Medal is awarded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage to persons and organizations for distinguished contributions to, or protection of the Polish culture and national heritage.
Congratulations to Ryszard Kott for receiving this well-deserved recognition for his extensive and impactful contributions, his generosity and tireless efforts in promoting Polish culture and language, culminated with the establishment of the Maria Kott Endowed Professorship of Polish Studies at the University of Washington in 2021.
Read more: Ryszard Kott – accomplishments in promoting Polish culture and national heritage.
Ryszard Kott arrived in Seattle in 1989 recruited for a job at Microsoft’s research center in Redmond, Washington. At once, he became involved in the local Polish community, promoting culture, organizing evens and fundraising. For several years, he co-organized the Seattle Polish Film Festival (SPFF), and in 2000 he created the first website for the festival. He founded the Seattle Polish Foundation (SPF), with a mission to promote Polish culture and language in the Pacific Northwest. He served as its president from 2000 to 2013 and currently serves as vice-president. SPF is the leading Polish charitable organization in the Northwest region of the United States, with an annual budget of over $150,000. SPF sponsors numerous Polish cultural events and festivals, supports Polish cultural organizations including the Polish Home Association in Seattle, as well as local Polish schools in Seattle and Bellevue.
During his term as SPF President, Ryszard organized first Pierogi Fest at the Polish Cultural Center in Seattle and managed it from 2006 to 2012, developing it into a mini-Polish festival. In 2012, based on this experience, he co-founded, along with three other community members, Polish Festival Seattle, an annual cultural festival at Seattle Center attended by about 10,000 people each year. Between 2005 and 2010, he raised over $800,000 for the expansion and modernization of the Polish Cultural Center (Polish Home) in Seattle. The renovation completed in 2012 included a new wing with an elevator and upgrades to the ballroom stage. Ryszard was also the founder and the publisher of Seattle Polish News, a key source of local cultural and Polish community news since 2002, as well as the producer and co-director of the documentary film “Passing the Torch: 100 Years of the Polish Home Association”, celebrating the centennial of the Polish Home Association in Seattle in 2018.
On the same centenary occasion, he sponsored the visit of director Monika Meleń from Poland, along with her cinematographer, to produce two documentaries about the Seattle Polish community: “A Piece of Poland in Seattle (Polski stulatek, czyli historia Polonii w Seattle” and ” Bronka, Lady of the Mountain (Kobieta skała)” about Bronka Sandstrom. In preparation for the film production, he organized and carried out an ‘oral history’ project in years 2017-2018, which involved collecting interviews, audio, and video recordings from members of the Polish community in Seattle, including post-war emigrants and people rescued from exile in Siberia during World War II. These materials were handed over to Prof. Dorota Praszałowicz at the Institute of American Studies and Polish Diaspora Studies at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland for publication and migration research. In 2022-2023, he raised over $70,000 to purchase a Steinway concert piano, which makes it possible to organize concerts by outstanding pianists at the Polish Cultural Center without having to rent an instrument each time.
Ryszard is also a collector of Polish art, owning a rich collection of works by artists such as Bolesław Biegas, Jan Czapski, Jan Lebenstein, and Jerzy Nowosielski, as well as a collection of Polish posters. For many years, he organized exhibits of Polish posters and paintings from his own collection. He provided technical and media support for the exhibition “Colors of Identity” from Tom Podl’s collection, including the exhibition’s website and the first interactive CD accompanying the exhibition’s catalog. At the time, Tom Podl’s collection was the best private collection of Polish art in the United States, later exhibited at the National Museum in Krakow and at Zachęta in Warsaw in 2001, as well as in other museums.
Together with his late wife Maria Kott, he organized the first exhibit of the Polish School of Posters in Seattle in 2001 and co-organized an exhibition of posters and lithographs by Rafał Olbiński in 2003, which opened a productive collaboration between the University of Washington in Seattle and the local Seattle Polish community. He has organized and co-organized exhibitions of posters as well as Polish art and culture in various venues in Seattle and throughout Washington State, including, organizing a poster exhibition in 2017 at the Northwest Folk Festival, which attracts thousands of participants to the event.
Ryszard Kott’s very extensive and productive cultural activity was culminated by the creation, thanks to his generous donation, of the University of Washington (UW) Maria Kott Endowed Professorship of Polish Studies. Maria Kott was a co-founder and member of UWPSEC from its inception and actively participated in its work, inviting prominent figures from the world of science, culture, and art to give lectures, as well as organizing exhibitions and meetings. Due to the popularity of the program, successful auctions and grants, UWPSEC grew the endowment fund to about $350,000. Thanks to Ryszard’s private donation in 2021, the fund exceeded $1 million, making it possible to fulfill the plans for creating the Endowed Professorship of Polish Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle.
The Maria Kott Endowed Professorship of Polish Studies was established in December 2021 at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle. Professor Agnieszka Jeżyk was appointed to fill the position in 2024. According to the endowment agreement signed by Ryszard, the purpose of the studies is to promote the Polish language as well as Polish culture and art, and various social and historical aspects related to Polish culture and traditions. The professorship ensures that the studies in Polish language and national heritage will continue perpetually at the UW.
The Maria Kott Endowed Professorship in Polish Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle is the only program of its kind west of Chicago and serves as a center for Polish language and culture for the western United States. There are only few endowed professorships and chairs of Polish Studies in the U.S., therefore they are important hubs for promoting Polish culture and arts abroad. They play a key role not just at local universities, but also as cultural centers on a nationwide level in the United States.
Ryszard received the Knight’s Cross (2005) and Officer’s Cross (2015) of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, awarded by the President of Poland for promoting Polish culture and traditions abroad and is being recognized with Gloria Artis medal from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage awarded in 2026.
