Countries want money from the state for a new gallery and library

Plzeň - The Association of Regions of the Czech Republic wants to push for the state to provide money for the construction of a new regional gallery in Plzeň, a library in Ostrava, and the Janáček Cultural Center in Brno. The draft resolution is ready; it is awaiting the convening of the committee for culture and heritage care, after which it will go to the Association of Regions council, said Marcela Krejsová (ODS), the economic deputy of the Plzeň regional governor, to ČTK.

The Plzeň Region already has a building permit for a new gallery worth 820 million CZK. It will be built if the Ministry of Culture provides 480 million CZK for it. Recently, the regional and city representatives approved a memorandum; the Ministry of Culture will join it once it has the funds in its budget. The Association of Regions is seeking resources for the investment program for the development of regional cultural facilities from the Ministry of Finance.

"The South Bohemian governor Ivana Stráská (ČSSD) has taken this upon herself. The next meeting of the Association of Regions will be in September," Krejsová said. According to her, money could already appear in the state budget for next year, as the Ministry of Culture's program has existed for several years but has not been funded. The Moravian-Silesian and South Moravian regions, which have also approved memoranda, already have written commitments from former Minister of Finance Andrej Babiš (ANO). "I'm waiting for the tables for the state budget and I will try possibly for a parliamentary initiative to raise the amount," she stated.

For the Plzeň Region, a binding commitment, resolution, or outlook in the budget is sufficient. "We do not need to have the money next year. If there is a budget outlook, then the Ministry of Culture will sign it (the memorandum) with us, and we will finalize the documentation for the tender, which will take at least six months, and then a public procurement for the contractor will be announced. So realistically, we will need the money in 2019 or 2020," she said.

The gallery would feature permanent exhibitions; 95 percent of the 10,000 exhibits worth over one billion CZK are currently in storage. The West Bohemian Gallery has the second most valuable collection of interwar modern art after the National Gallery. "With Ostrava, we are the only gallery in the Czech Republic that does not have a permanent exhibition due to space reasons," said director Roman Musil.

The Janáček Cultural Center, projected to cost nearly 1.3 billion CZK, is a project for the construction of a new concert hall for the Brno Philharmonic. This European-level ensemble performs and rehearses in inadequate conditions. It is expected to have a capacity of over 1,200 seats and the highest acoustic parameters. The city's aim is to start construction in 2018. The new building of the Moravian-Silesian Scientific Library, known as the "Black Cube," valued at over one billion CZK, was already prepared in 2009. The library has operated for decades under provisional conditions.