Gdańskie instytucje kultury jako miejsca (jakiej?) pamięci

The article contains reflections on the cultural image of Gdańsk and its cultural institutions as they near the mark of thirty years of self-governance. On the basis of the analysis of aspects connected with some of the themes derived from permanent exhibitions presented at selected cultural institutions in Gdańsk, an attempt is undertaken to highlight the problems and phenomena which remain in close connection with the processes of constructing the post-communist cultural identity of the city. Among the crucial factors which are subject of the analysis first and foremost mention has to be made of the specificity of the local memory and identity which can be referred to as insertive, yet with the dominant tendency towards historicism. Those features, in turn, lead to describing some of the cultural institutions as places of memory, both with reference to their architecture, as well as to the narratives they present. An important place in the course of those deliberations is assigned to Gdańsk’s cultural policy and its role in programming the local memory and identity, presented on the basis of the analysis of the development strategies published by the city over the analysed period of time. The state of events in Gdańsk is finally juxtaposed with popular trends in the development of new museology in Europe, where tendencies towards increasing introspection, revision, and anthropological approach can be observed.