Wanda Telakowska

Wanda Telakowska (1905–1986) was a Polish artist and the founder of Warsaw's Institute of Industrial Design.

Telakowska earned a degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in 1931. She was a member of the Spółdzielnia Artystów ŁAD (pl), an Arts and Crafts artist collective that encouraged a new Polish artistic identity that included folk art. After World War II, Telakowska joined the Communist government in Poland, creating the Bureau of Supervision of Aesthetic Production (Biuro Nadzoru Estetyki Producji, known as BNEP) in 1946. As the head of BNEP, she commissioned artists (including some from ŁAD) to design many mass-produced Polish goods, under the BNEP motto of "Beauty is for everyday and for everybody." Some artists were suspicious of collaborating with the Communist government during a time of continued political conflict. Ultimately, BNEP shut down, as the value of artist designs was not convincing enough to factory owners. In this role, she "invited artists, ethnographers, art historians, pedagogues, sociologists, and enthusiasts of folk art to contribute to her institute's efforts to develop new forms of sociologist culture in collaboration with working women, peasants, and youth." Telakowska fostered a movement to weave ethnic motifs into a new national artistic identity. Echoing BNEP's slogan, IWP's was "Everyday Beauty for All."