- 'With the presented series of paintings, I invite you on this unusual for me journey to seaside universities, seen through the colours, emotions, details or surroundings of a given place,' - said dr hab. inż. Aneta Oniszczuk-Jastrzabek, prof. UG, opening the painting exhibition 'SEA EU by the Sea' on 3 October in the Main Library of the University of Gdańsk.

The opening of the exhibition was part of the ceremony of the Inauguration of the Academic Year at the University of Gdańsk, whose leitmotif was the maritime character of the university and its special aspect - the partnership of seaside universities in the SEA EU project. Prof. UG Aneta Oniszczuk-Jastrząbek, in her capacity as Vice-Chancellor for Informatisation and Internationalisation, signed, together with the former Vice-Rector for Science and now Rector prof. dr hab. Piotr Stepnowski, on November 7, 2019, in Brussels, a declaration establishing the University of the Seas SEA EU.

- 'The first phase of the SEA EU project, which inspired me to paint a series of paintings, from my travels to the partner universities, which have been created over the last 3 years, is coming to an end soon. In 2019, I started to manage the SEA EU project and the more I read about the concept of the project and its ideas, the more I was convinced of its uniqueness. So I decided to combine my passion, which is painting, with my professional work,' - said prof. UG Aneta Oniszczuk-Jastrząbek during the vernissage. - 'Today, in retrospect, I can say that it was quite a challenge. Firstly, because I had planned to paint two paintings each from the cities where the partner universities are located, and additionally from Brussels, where we signed the declaration of the alliance. Ultimately, the pandemic prevented me from realising this plan. A trip to Brest and Cadiz is still ahead of me. Secondly, painting is about long, long hours spent at the easel, but giving great satisfaction with every brushstroke.'

The exhibition features 11 paintings from seven SEA EU partner cities: Gdańsk, Cadiz, Malta, Split, Kiel, Brest and Brussels. And it is the painting 'Brussels in the rain' that opens the bilingual catalogue prepared by the University of Gdańsk Publishing House on the occasion of the exhibition. The paintings presented in the catalogue are accompanied by the author's memories and reminiscences of the cities in which the partner universities of the SEA EU are located: 'I get on. Traffic jams. Talking to a taxi driver about nothing. It's raining. I don't have an umbrella. 9.10 am and still 2 kilometres to go. 9.15 am. "Look, there's the Brittany representation," says the taxi driver. Traffic jams. I pay and get off in the middle of the junction. It will be faster. "Be careful!" - I hear, closing the door. It's raining. It's grey. I shuffle between cars in high heels. People are hurrying to work, crowding at the pedestrian crossing. Here I am.'

The curators of the exhibition are Joanna Kamień (UG Publishing House) and Marta Szaszkiewicz (UG Museum).

- 'Working on the exhibition was a great pleasure and an extraordinary experience. The exhibition tells the story of the SEA EU project from a slightly different angle - through art that presents the extraordinary moments of the project. It is a story about the sea, passion, vision, meetings, friendship, relationships, emotions, and the people who made the SEA EU project happen,' - said curator Marta Szaszkiewicz. - 'An additional element of the exhibition is an absolutely unique wooden map of Europe, which presents the countries associated with the project. The map was made by the Gdańsk-based company Avocado Pracownia Twórcza. In addition to the land, the map also shows the maritime layer, which is something we were very keen on. All of the SEA EU states are connected by the sea, hence the idea to introduce an additional element to the exhibition, namely a three-dimensional sea map.'

Sponsor: Avocado Creative Studio

Media patrons: Radio Gdańsk, Namiary na morze i handel, Zawsze Pomorze, gospodarkamorska.pl, Radio Mors UG and University Gazette

The exhibition can be viewed in the Gallery in the Main Library of the University of Gdańsk from Tuesdays to Saturdays from 10 am to 5 pm until March 31, 2023. You are most welcome!

Aneta Iwona Oniszczuk-Jastrząbek - born on November 14, 1974, in Gdynia, is a professor at the University of Gdańsk in the field of economic sciences. She specialises in the topics of competitiveness, entrepreneurship and innovativeness of enterprises and social responsibility of business including the maritime economy.

She is the author and co-author of monographs on entrepreneurship in building the competitive capacity of enterprise and maritime policy. She has participated and is participating in numerous EU and international scientific programmes, including, among others, the European Union Framework Programme TRANSFORUM (2012-2014), Interreg South Baltic - SEAPLANSPACE (2018-2020), Interreg Baltic Sea Region - COMBINE (2019), European University - Project "European University of the Seas" - SEA EU (2019-2022), NAWA PROM 2 - Project: International scholarship exchange for PhD students and academic staff (2019-2020), Horizon Europe - CRISTAL (2022-2025). She is a member of scientific societies - the Polish Logistics Society and the Polish Economic Society. She was awarded the Bronze Medal for Long Service (2011) and the Medal of the National Education Commission (2015). She combines her academic path with practice and has held several leadership positions at the University of Gdańsk, which have changed over the years.

In 1997, she obtained an engineering degree in management and marketing in the maritime industry from the Faculty of Ocean Engineering and Shipbuilding at the Gdańsk University of Technology, and a year later a master's degree in organisational management specialisation from the Faculty of Economics and Management at the Gdańsk University of Technology. Her career path has been associated with the University of Gdańsk from the outset, where she was employed in 1999 at the Institute of Transport and Maritime Trade of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Gdańsk. Here, she earned further academic degrees - a PhD in 2003 and then a postdoctoral degree in management sciences in 2015. She combines her scientific work with practice and managerial functions both at the Faculty of Economics of UG and in university-wide structures. From 1999 to 2005 she was deputy president for finance at one of the maritime companies, and from 2004 to 2005 she was Vice-Rector for student affairs at the Gdańsk University of Humanities. Since 2016, she has been the head of the Department of Global Economy at the Institute of Transport and Maritime Trade of the EC UG, and from 2016 to 2019 she was the director of this Institute and the supervisor of the Student Business Club. Since 2019, she has been the Head of the Department of Transport and Maritime Trade at EC UG. At the same time, she was appointed as UG's Vice-Rector for Information Technology and Internationalisation and Promotion from 2019 to 2020.

At that time, she was also entrusted with the management of the SEA EU project, which formally became operational on October 1, 2019. This initiative had a great impact not only on prof. Aneta Oniszczuk-Jastrząbek's day-to-day Vice-Rector duties, but also generated a lot of positive emotions, which translated into an original art project - a plan to paint a picture of each city where a SEA EU partner university is located. After assuming successive administrative posts - a member of the directorate of the Inter-University Centre for Informatisation from 2020, director of the Centre for Communication and Promotion of the University of Gdańsk from 2020-2021, and deputy chancellor for Informatisation, Communication and Promotion of the University of Gdańsk from 2021 - she no longer managed the SEA EU at the University of Gdańsk but continued her art project related to it. Its aftermath is the exhibition SEA EU by the Sea. SEA EU coastal universities in the paintings of Aneta Oniszczuk-Jastrząbek and the accompanying catalogue.

Kuratorkami wystawy są: Joanna Kamień (Wydawnictwo UG) i Marta Szaszkiewicz (Muzeum UG).

- Prace nad wystawą były dla nas olbrzymią przyjemnością i niezwykłym doświadczeniem. Wystawa opowiada o projekcie SEA EU z nieco innej strony – poprzez sztukę, która prezentuje niezwykłe momenty projektu. To opowieść o morzu, pasji, wizji, spotkaniach, przyjaźni, relacjach, emocjach oraz ludziach, dzięki którym projekt SEA EU powstał - powiedziała kuratorka Marta Szaszkiewicz. - Dodatkowym elementem wystawy jest absolutnie wyjątkowa drewniana mapa Europy, która prezentuje Państwa zrzeszone w projekcie. Mapę wykonała gdańska firma Avocado Pracownia Twórcza. Mapa poza lądem eksponuje również warstwę morską, a na tym bardzo nam zależało. Wszystkie Państwa SEA EU łączy morze stąd też pomysł wprowadzenia dodatkowego elementu na wystawie czyli trójwymiarowej mapy morskiej.

Sponsor: Avocado Creative Studio

Patronaty medialne: Radio Gdańsk, Namiary na morze i handel, Zawsze Pomorze, gospodarkamorska.pl, Radio Mors UG i Gazeta Uniwersytecka

Wystawę oglądać można w Galerii w Bibliotece Głównej Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego od wtorku do soboty w godzinach 10.00 - 17.00 do 10 lutego 2023 r. Zapraszamy!