The National Museum in Warsaw’s Modern Design Centre was established in 1979; it holds decorative arts, applied arts, and design items – more than 24,000 objects in total – created by Polish designers after 1918.

The Modern Design Centre has an exceptional collection of decorative items and works of applied art from the years 1946–1949, the only one of its kind in Poland. This body comprises furniture, print fabrics, glass and ceramics, toys and souvenirs, metal objects, jewellery, clothes and fashion accessories. Many of these are unique specimens of items which were considered for mass production but, in the end, did not proceed past the prototype stage.

The largest single body of works kept by the Modern Design Centre consists of items from the Industrial Design Institute, with a particularly good representation of glass, ceramics, and textiles – especially print fabrics. There are also many objects illustrating the styles prevalent in the 1950s and 1960s.
 
The Modern Design Centre collection also includes unique ceramics, glass, and artistic textiles, among them original works by Magdalena Abakanowicz and glass items by Henryk Albin Tomaszewski and examples of works from the Wrocław and Sopot schools.

One of the strong points of the Modern Design Centre is accounted for by its rich collection of design drawings which enable retracing the successive steps of the design process as well as affording a rare opportunity of juxtaposing the preliminary sketch with the ultimate realisation. The collection incorporates compendious archives (photographs and documents bequeathed by the artists themselves or by their families). The Modern Design Centre’s documentation work on Polish applied arts extends beyond items held in our own collections. We also study private archives and collections as well as architecture and interiors of public facilities, especially those which are at risk of damage and which do not benefit from care by professional conservators on a day-to-day basis. And thus, we have documented historical items owned by Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as the interiors of Warsaw’s Palace of Culture and Science, a Stalinist-era skyscraper. The collections as well as the rich documentation maintained by the Modern Design Centre are regularly referred to for material used in master’s and PhD theses on art history, design, museum studies, and wood technology. Plans for the near future include establishment of a design gallery at the National Museum in Warsaw, encompassing a permanent display of items from our collection as well as space for temporary exhibits.

The Modern Design Centre is a subdivision of the Contemporary Art Collection at the National Museum in Warsaw. It was founded in 1979, when the National Museum took over the holdings of the Industrial Design Institute. The latter was established in 1946 and began collecting objects created through the inspiration of Wanda Telakowska who, benefiting from the support of the Polish state, sought to assure that mass-produced items of everyday use are designed by artists.

A number of institutions and production entities followed the example set by Telakowska and embarked on similar efforts. These included the Department of Planning, the Department of Small Production, and the Office of Production Aesthetics Supervision at the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, the Industrial Design Institute, the Experimental Textile Printing and Painting Studio in Milanówek, the ceramics factories in Włocławek, Koło, Pruszków, and Ćmielów, the State Visual Techniques Lyceum and the Helena Modrzejewska Vocational School for Women in Zakopane, and the central Design Office for Light Industry affiliated with the Industrial Design Institute (in operation since 1960). A role of especial importance in this field was played by the Industrial Design Institute, set up in 1950. The Industrial Design Institute showrooms became a source of designs, models, and prototypes of furniture, textiles, glassware, ceramics, and all and sundry items; come the late 1970s, these holdings bore all the hallmarks of a museum collection in its own right. The idea of passing this treasure trove on to the National Museum in Warsaw was the last initiative of Wanda Telakowska, who was preparing to retire. The collections were gratefully accepted by Prof Stanisław Lorentz, who proceeded to establish the Modern Design Centre of the National Museum in Warsaw, entrusting its organisation to Hanna Chwierut-Jasicka. From 1993, the Modern Design Centre has been managed by Anna Maga. In 1995, the collection was enlarged with the holdings of the Contemporary Decorative Art Department of Hanna Kotkowska-Bareja.