She graduated from the University of Silesia in Cieszyn, Faculty of Pedagogy and Art (diploma in painting), post-graduate studies at the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow in the field of painting and textile art. She continued her education during doctoral studies at the same university, where she had her doctorate defence in 2009. She obtained a habilitated doctor’s degree in 2019 (University of Silesia, Institute of Art). Iwona Bugajska-Bigos also studied art therapy. He is a professor at the State Higher Vocational School in Nowy Sącz, where she has been the head of the Department of Artistic Education and Visual Arts. Her achievements include 21 individual exhibitions and over 130 collective exhibitions. She is the author and co-author of international research projects carried out in various educational environments devoted to art and art therapy via the visual arts. She is an author of numerous articles on art, art therapy and artistic education, active participant of many international conferences and symposia on art and art therapy. She is a pioneer member and co-founder of the European Federation of Art Therapy (EFAT). Iwona Bugajska-Bigos has been working on an extensive author's cycle of works entitled “WORDS”, in which she takes up aspects related to communication as a situation in which words in their form and intention spring into existence a content-and-form interaction between the recipient and the artwork. The artist's work includes enamel, textile art and painting.