The Rural Commune Culture Centre is located in Istebna is rural commune institution. It is located in a historic building built in 1883 in the Paweł Stalmach Park next to Good Shepard Church. Along with cultural activities and commune library, the Centre focuses on regional promotion, tourist information, and sports promotion. The following events are organized by the Centre – Istebna Days, Koniaków Lace Days, Istebna Feast, all kinds of tournaments and “O Istebniański Bruclik” skiing running race. There is always something going on here – lectures, youth meetings, new books promotions and the workers keep recording precious collections of regional literature (folk songs, legends, prose, etc.).

It is here where the Biggest Koniaków Lace in the World is on permanent exhibition. It is a trey cloth with a diameter of 5 meters and it was listed in the Guinness World Book of Records. It was made in 2013 and Lucyna Ligocka-Kohut was its originator. Together with Zuzanna Gwarek, they managed to organize a team of five talented lace makers who made this trey cloth and these were Urszula Rybka, Marta Haratyk, Danuta Krasowska, Mariola Legierska and Renata Krasowska. It took almost half a year and 50 km of cotton filet to make this cloth. The result of their work – a cloth consisting of almost 8 thousand floral motifs and weighing 5 kg – must be seen. Artistry and precision with which the lace is made are simply incredible.

The Centre in Istebna organizes annually the Exhibition of Folk Art which is open from June to October. Apart from beautiful lace (which is made by 700 lace makers from all over the Koniaków region), the exhibition presents sculptures, embroideries and other traditional handicraft of the folk artists and there are plenty of those in the Silesian Beskids Region. The exhibition has been organized for 35 years now and at present, there are around 100 artists whose works are presented here.

Gminny Ośrodek Kultury, Promocji, Informacji Turystycznej i Biblioteka Publiczna
43-470 Istebna 68
tel. (+48) 33 855 62 08
e-mail: kultura@ug.istebna.pl
www.istebna.eu, www.koronkakoniakowska.pl