The Foksal Gallery Foundation has been established in 1997 on the basis of the Foksal Gallery, in existence since 1966. Foksal Gallery has been Central Europe's unique institution which, on the one hand, has since the 60s functioned in an international context, and on the other, reflected on institutions' activities and artist's position in the context of both the art world and the local situation. After the political and economic transition began in 1989, Foksal Gallery remained subordinated to bureaucratic structures of culture management.
 
The Foksal Gallery Foundation was established by Wiesław Borowski, one of the founders of the Foksal Gallery in 1966, and the authors of its programme were young curators of the Foksal Gallery - Adam Szymczyk, Andrzej Przywara, and Joanna Mytkowska. The Foksal Gallery Foundation's goal from the very start was to creatively use the Foksal Gallery tradition to seek new models of the functioning of the artistic institution in the context of the international artistic situation, and Poland's new social and economic realities of the 90s. Since 1997, the Foundation has undertaken a range of activities on the artistic and institutional fields, experimenting with definitions of concepts such as history, gallery, or public space. As part of an effort to revitalise history as relevant and inspiring, attempts were made aimed at activating tradition. For four years, the Foksal Gallery Foundation has organisationally and financially supported the Foksal Gallery. In December 2001, the Foundation moved to new premises, which also became its new exhibition space. The question of a new institutional model, always a subject of critical reflection in the Foksal community, has become a matter of practical solutions. Moving on to a new space and experimenting with the possible ways of an artistic institution's functioning was also a forced result of a crisis that affected the majority of public institutions appointed to support and promote contemporary art in Poland.
 
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