In the CR, there was a period in the late 19th and early 20th century when club life bloomed and during that time various kinds of clubs were founded – national houses, community clubs, and sporting associations (Sokol) etc., where people went not just for entertainment but also to get together. They evolved naturally, embedded in community life, until the Communist regime seized power. The regime severed these links, nationalised property, quashed civil society, and seized control of entertainment. The old buildings used for these activities fell into decline; some were refurbished, but usually suffered from insensitive structural modifications. They were replaced by the mass construction of megalomaniacal ‘cultural houses’, which the political authorities also used for their own visibility. After 1989 some municipalities tried to get rid of these buildings by selling them, because they were expensive to operate and to maintain. But even in the 1990s municipal representatives already began to realise that without cultural houses and centres quality local community life would suffer, and there was a return to a naturally evolving process. Cultural houses and centres are run by various subjects: municipalities, municipal districts, and even associations and public benefit companies, joint-stock and limited-liability companies, and private subjects; none, however, are run by the state. The activities they offer can be divided into basic groups: artistic, non-artistic and educational activities, and other cultural services.
Through its contributory organisation NIPOS, the MC has begun to conduct statistical data collection (done for the first time for 2007) on the activities of cultural institutions such as cultural houses, municipal cultural centres, extracurricular centres, and so on. Statistical surveys are conducted on a sample of (selected) organisations.
Civic activities (associations, charitable trusts) have primarily surfaced in the area of public cultural services. Their activities relate mainly to arts and education. These include centres mediating access to the contemporary arts. One example is MeetFactory in Prague, which is based in a former industrial space. The centre offers cultural education, productions, studio space and arts residencies and features exhibitions, a video library, a bookstore, a café, and a dance club. It also rents out 5000 m2 space made up of multifunctional studios and halls. This charitable trust is a self-declared non-profit international contemporary arts centre, the mission of which is to initiate dialogue between different arts genres and mediate for the public the latest developments in the contemporary arts scene. In addition to a theatre and music programme and exhibitions in three galleries, it also hosts an international arts residency programme. MeetFactory was founded in 2001 by well-known artist David Černý.
Another example is provided by the clubs and cafés run by associations and alternative cultural-education centres that combine a cultural programme with meditation and courses in dance and singing. The Sokol Community is another civic initiative and its individual units manage individual Sokol Centres, which are places that often also serve as local community centres for the wider community. This is the case in the Central Bohemian spa town Toušeň, not far from Prague, where the local theatre association that has been re-established also organises concerts, exhibitions, dances, and theatre shows at the local Sokol Centre. Based on a contract with the municipality, various associations put together the cultural programme of Sokol Centres, which do not have their own professional employees.
Another version of this form of arrangement is the work of Johan, an association in Pilsen, which secured funding for the reconstruction of a former train station building that functions as a multicultural and production centre. These examples are evidence of the principle of cooperation between the public and private sectors at work, which is something that is called for in key government concepts.
There are a great number of centres of theatre education that operate entirely as civic initiatives. For example, in Olomouc one basic school of the arts was initially set up as a project and has since functioned as an autonomous association called Association D, which offers courses in drama for schools and also provides training to teachers and heads of children’s theatre companies. Currently these centres are working to obtain a permanent education licence.
An important characteristic of civic initiatives (many of which emerge for this purpose) is that they are a response to what is currently going on in society in the field of culture. Over the years various civic initiatives have emerged spontaneously in the sphere of culture and temporarily established themselves as platforms that promote the interests of culture either at the level of the state or at the level of the given municipality. One example of this is “ZaČeskoKulturní/For a Cultural Czech Republic”, which operates on the state level; others include “4 Points for Culture” or “For a Cultural Prague”, directed against the lack of conceptuality at Prague City Hall. One initiative of current relevance in connection with the COVID-19 is a platform called Zaživouhudbu/ForLiveMusic, the goal of which is to promote measures designed to help save the music sector.
The non-professional (amateur) arts have a very strong tradition in the CR, one that stretches back several centuries. Given the country’s demographic picture (settlements with populations up to 5000 predominate) local culture plays an essential role and positively influences the quality of life and is part of the image of places and regions. Some branches of the arts have no or only a marginal professional segment (e.g. vocal music, brass music, folk dance). Non-professional arts groups act as important representatives of the CR abroad and have been praised for their artistic quality (e.g. children’s choirs, amateur theatre). Every level of public administration is involved in supporting the presentation of amateur groups. Such arts activities are practised as leisure-time activities and are not the primary livelihood for those who participate in them. They can take the form of an individual pursuit or a collective activity practised in groups and clubs. Current cultural anthropology recognises the important role the arts play in the development of the individual in terms of contributing to a person’s cultural capital.
The non-professional arts are currently enjoying a surge, in part owing to tradition and intergenerational transfer, and in part owing to the rising standard of living and to the existing system of assistance by the state, regions and local areas. The state and the regions support a unique system of what are called ‘competitive talent shows”. Most arts fields have a nationwide talent show that is built on regional (rounds of) talent shows, and if a company or individual wishes to take part in the national talent show in their field they must first take part in one of these regional shows. The national show is made up of nominations or recommendations from regional juries appointed by the programme council. This system has been gradually built up since the 1920s and after 1990 amateurs had to decide whether it should continue. At that time the network of cultural education facilities (district and regional cultural centres) that had overseen the system ceased to exist. Given that the grant system of public administration was still only emerging, amateurs in individual fields of the arts had to decide whether they wanted this system to continue and whether they knew how to make it work. Their decision in favour of continuing this system means that it reflects a publicly declared cultural need.
Non-professional arts shows (the number of which increased significantly after 1990 as municipalities sought to revive or establish such a tradition) are organised by cultural facilities, leisure-time facilities for children and young people, associations and charitable trusts, physical persons and businesses. They use multiple-source funding based on public grants. As well as the newly established shows there are also festivals that have a continuous history dating back many years (Jirásek’s Hronov amateur theatre festival founded in 1931, Chrudim puppetry festival established in 1951, the Festival of International Choral Art in Jihlava, established in 1957, Strážnice International Folklore Festival, established in 1957).
Unlike other European countries that were not part of the communist bloc, where the main non-professional arts organisations are non-state, non-profit organisations that operate nationwide (their activities receive material support from the relevant state body (e.g. Germany, France, Belgium, Austria), there are no majority nationwide associations (that represent individual fields of the arts) in the CR. In some fields there are no associations at all (e.g. stage dance, recitation), in others there are several associations (e.g. amateur theatre, non-professional film), and in others there are associations striving to represent of the majority (e.g. the Union of Czech Photographers, the Union of Czech Choirs). This situation is the result of a break in tradition that was caused by the communist period, when such associations were not allowed to exist, and by the ongoing aversion people have to being grouped in associations. Associations that do not have the resources to hire professional employees and must rely on volunteers will have difficulty functioning. On the other hand, a state service centre has existed since 1925 (Masaryk Institute of Public Education). Today this agenda is taken up by two state budgetary organisations: the National Information and Consulting Centre for Culture based in Prague (NIPOS) (which covers most fields and oversees the talent show system) and the National Institute of Folk Culture in Strážnice (overseeing traditional folk culture including folk dance and music). It works with all umbrella organisations on a conceptual and organisational level and respected experts and artists sit on its advisory boards.
In terms of tradition, it is not surprising to find that the largest fields are amateur theatres with approximately 3000 companies and choirs with approximately 1700 groups. Each year 200 children’s choirs with a total of around 6000 singers take part in the talent shows. Approximately 300 dance groups and a total of 2500 children take part in the talent shows in dance. A new field is children’s filmmaking, for which a national show has been organised in Blansko since 2015. New technologies also influence the experimental work of adult filmmakers and photographers. Complete information on some fields is provided on national websites. For example, Amatérské divadlo is a website that has been developing since the mid-1990s (with the financial support of EEA/Norway) and it offers more than 180 000 items of data stored in five database categories (location, companies, people, shows, literature). The website is administered by NIPOS. There is also the national register of non-professional film FILMDAT (a voluntary association initiative) etc.
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