Izabella Cywińska

Maria Izabella Cywińska-Michałowska (25 March 1935 – 23 December 2023) was a Polish theatre and film director and film critic. She was the director of the Wojciech Bogusławski Theatre in Kalisz (1970–1973), the director of the New Theatre in Poznań (1973–1989) and, later, the artistic director of the Ateneum Theatre in Warsaw (2008–2011). In the years 1989–1991 she served as the Polish Minister of Culture and Art.

Early life and education Izabella Cywińska was born on 25 March 1935 in Lviv, and raised in Kamień Puławski. Her paternal ancestors used the Puchała coat of arms. She studied ethnography at the University of Warsaw, (Włodzimierz Braniecki was the co-author of the screenplay). In 2008, after the death of Gustaw Holoubek, she took over the duties of the artistic director at the Ateneum Theatre in Warsaw. She held this position until July 2011.

From 12 September 1989 to 12 January 1991, she served as Minister of Culture and Art in the Cabinet of Tadeusz Mazowiecki. She became a member of the Support Committee of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.

In 2011, she was decorated with the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. She also published a diary Dziewczyna z Kamienia.