On 5 October this year, during the Gold Silver Time trade fair in Warsaw, Lidia Popiel received the nomination for the first Amber Ambassador from the hands of the Mayor of Gdańsk, Paweł Adamowicz.
The Amber Ambassador project aims to promote amber and amber jewellery. Every two years, the Mayor of Gdańsk will present nominations to well-known figures from the worlds of fashion, culture, business and politics, whose task will be to wear amber ornaments, and to inform about its exceptional qualities and related issues. The first nomination was awarded to Lidia Popiel, a well-known photographer, associated with the fashion world for many years, who writes a fashion column in „Piąta Aleja”.
At a special meeting with journalists, the Mayor of Gdańsk, Paweł Adamowicz, and the Mayor's representative for amber, Robert Pytlos, announced the details of this project and the actions taken so far under the Gdańsk Development Strategy until 2015, of which it is also a part. „There are many stereotypes about amber that we would like to break by showing good design in amber jewellery. We are keen to introduce amber „into high society”. That is why we invited Ms Lidia Popiel to cooperate with us, also counting on some suggestions from her side,” said Mayor Adamowicz.
He also announced the creation of a kind of system of official amber gifts intended to cement Poland's amber image worldwide. An example is the amber bracelet presented to Rod Stewart during this year's concert at the Gdańsk Shipyard, the amber pen given to Lech Wałęsa during the celebrations marking the 1st anniversary of the Amber Museum, and most recently one for Günter Grass on the occasion of his 80th birthday.
The Amber Ambassador Programme is one of the elements of the Gdańsk Development Strategy up to 2015, the main assumption of which is to strengthen Gdańsk's role as the World Amber Capital. Last year's activities bringing Gdańsk closer to its desired goal included: the establishment of Amber Museum and World Amber Council, the signing on the initiative of the city authorities of the Gdańsk Declaration on good amber practices. This year, of the utmost importance is the signing by President Adamowicz of the decree of 7 July 2007 regulating the rules for the lease of municipal land for the exploration and extraction of amber – the first in 35 years. An important role is also played by the Amber Delta cluster project created jointly with the Institute for Market Research. Plans for the near future also include the creation of an inter-faculty jewellery studio at the Gdańsk Academy of Fine Arts under the direction of Dr Sławomir Fijałkowski, a well-known designer and assistant professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź.
Photo: Michał Kosior