Brno Design Center is ending, the role will be taken over by CzechTrade

Brno - The Brno Design Centre will terminate its activities today after 16 years of existence. Support and development of industrial design in the Czech Republic will be ensured by the Czech Trade agency starting in January. This was decided by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which will save around ten million crowns annually. The center's team is being dissolved, and the building is prepared for handover to the Brno city council, said Jiří Cicvárek, deputy director of the center, to CTK today.
    The design center located in Radnická Street in Brno organized exhibitions, seminars, author contests, provided consulting services, and archived information about Czech design. Representatives of the Design Centre consider the ministry's decision unfortunate, claiming they fulfilled their role well. The professional community has also opposed the closure of the center, arguing that the change will harm the competitiveness of the Czech economy.
    The call to the Ministry of Industry and Trade was signed by, for example, the chairman of the supervisory board of the Design Centre, holder of the National Design Award, and professor at the International Design School for Advanced Studies in Seoul, Jiří Kočandrle, the chairman of the Association of Industrial Designers Miloslav Šindler, and holder of the National Design Award and international Design Prestige Award Zdeněk Mrkvica. According to the signatories of the call, the ministry should have discussed the future of the center with associations and groups of designers, representatives of business unions, renowned designers, and design educators.
    Employees of the center also point out insufficient communication. "We expected that some changes would take place, but we didn't think we would be completely dispersed. I would have expected negotiations on how to improve work, searching for methods to better meet the ministry's requirements," Cicvárek previously told CTK. He stated that he was not aware of any criticisms or methodological objections from the ministry so far.
    The Design Centre also had a branch in Prague. It employed about twenty people and was an organizational unit of the state. The operation of the center depended on subsidies, which amounted to 20 million crowns annually.