YAF / TMS Katowice Edition

YAF / TMS Katowice Edition

13–14 December 2025

Katowice is not a single city — it’s an agglomeration. A region once built on coal, heavy industry, and extraction, now slowly trying to replace those foundations with technology, services, and new cultural identities. At least, that’s the plan.

This was our second Targi Młodej Sztuki visit to Katowice. It’s also the closest major city to our home base in Kraków and, historically, the third city we ever traveled to with TMS. Each time we come back, one thing stays consistent: artists are very interested. Submissions are strong, engagement from creators is real, and the need for platforms is clearly there.

The Katowice art market, however, is a complicated one. Interest exists and it’s measurable, but breaking through with a message about long-term artist support is not easy. Culture is rarely treated as a first-order need here, and we feel that a significant part of the local population is focused on more immediate, practical concerns. That context matters.

This time, we also made some location-related mistakes. Katowice is extremely car-oriented — in many ways, a Polish version of the US. Access without a car is limited, and that directly impacts who shows up. On Saturday, we recorded almost the same number of sold tickets as in Kraków, our strongest and most efficient city. Yet the visible attendance was noticeably lower. One reason is structural: people under 26 and over 60 enter for free. In Kraków, these groups form a large part of the audience. In Katowice, visitors were mostly mobile, middle-aged adults.

On one hand, this is the demographic most likely to buy art and financially support artists. On the other, not all artists aim their work at this group, and our audience diversity — something we value deeply — was limited. This imbalance worked against the overall experience.

Another serious issue was temperature. The lack of proper heating in the Szyb Wilson gallery created genuinely difficult conditions. Cold affects morale — and this time, the effect was clearly negative. For artists, for visitors, for everyone.

This edition was a lesson. A clear one.
We will never again allow uncomfortable temperatures at TMS, and we will put additional effort into keeping our events as close to city centers as possible.

Sunday attendance was weak. There’s no way around that.

Still, some things need to be said clearly.

The Katowice art market is not an easy one — and the fact that these words can even be used together is already a compliment to its current state. The potential is there. Developing it takes time and consistent work. TMS alone will not build this ecosystem from scratch, but we do see our presence as a real, qualitative improvement to the status quo.

A healthy, resilient, and interesting art market needs diversity and breadth. It cannot remain closed around a single capital city. Art needs circulation — between cities, audiences, and contexts — to stay alive.

We believe we are on the right path. Already, we are supporting the everyday livelihood of many artists and connecting local contemporary art with audiences across Poland. That work compounds over time.

We also held an onboarding session. All artists were informed about the possibilities of using Hive and the potential it offers them. Some people were interested in creating accounts, and they did. We are onboarding more talent, and one of the artists who was able to introduce herself is - Anna Underowicz

We were also happy to welcome several Hive visitors this year — and even better, Hive visitors enjoyed free entrance! We had @itsola from @thebeedevs, @asia-pl, who runs various competitions with us and supports curation HIVEARTGALLERY - POST , as well as @jocieprosza. Finally, @mynewlife and @gtg joined us too — not only enjoying the art, but actively talking with artists and representing Hive in a truly professional and inspiring way.

Thank you to Hive for the support.
We will continue to support artists — and help others do the same.

More work ahead.

Photos by @piotrputek & @mynewlife