The museum achievement of the year 2023 is the project Revitalization of the Ploština area

Prague - The museum achievement of 2023 has become the project of the Revitalization of the Ploština site and new exhibitions. The Museum of Southeast Moravia in Zlín succeeded in this category of the Gloria musaealis Awards. The national cultural monument Ploština commemorates a vanished settlement near Valašské Klobouky, which was burned down by the Nazis on April 19, 1945, and its inhabitants were massacred for supporting partisans. Awards for the best performances by museum workers and institutions in the past year were presented today at the Municipal House in Prague.

The jury of the competition, organized by the Association of Museums and Galleries, stated that "the sensitively executed landscaping and the new visitor center with exhibition spaces at a high visual level achieved through innovative approaches create, together with the reconstruction of the memorial, an impressive place".

The Zlín Region is the investor of the reconstruction worth 151 million crowns, and the memorial is managed by the Museum of Southeast Moravia in Zlín, which is a regional subsidy organization. Three interconnected buildings have been restored in the area. The surface of the memorial has been cleaned, the area in the middle of the memorial has new paving, new flagpoles have been erected, and memorial plaques with the names of villages with tragic fates during World War II have been installed. The new visitor center will bring closer the life of the loggers before the war, life during the Protectorate, with one part dedicated to the Ploština tragedy, and there is also a so-called silent space.

"Revitalization of the Ploština site was definitely the largest project we have realized. But we are now so revved up that we already have two more projects in preparation. These involve the complete finishing of the interior and structural modifications of the Malenovice Castle, and we will be completing the restoration and conservation workshops and the museum's depository," said Pavel Hrubec, director of the Museum of Southeast Moravia in Zlín, to ČTK. "These are investments in the tens of millions of crowns, and we are already working on it intensively. The Zlín Region will contribute about ten million crowns to the financing, and we have a preliminary grant approved by the European Union. The depository is expected to cost around 80 million crowns," he added.

As the second best museum achievement, the jurors evaluated the project for the reconstruction of the Ornithological Station (ORNIS) and the new exhibition of the Komenský Museum in Přerov. The costs for the reconstruction of the original station and the construction of the new building were nearly 100 million crowns. Third place went to the project for nearly three years of reconstruction of the museum and the new exhibition of the Municipal Museum in Jaroměř, based in the Wenk commercial house.

The Gloria musaealis award has three categories. In the category of Museum Exhibition of the Year 2023, the first prize went to the National Gallery in Prague for the exhibition Petr Brandl: The Story of a Bohemian. The second place prize was awarded to the staff of the Gallery of Modern Art in Roudnice nad Labem for the exhibition Heraclitus's Principle: 100 Years of Coal in Czech Art and the Museum of Czech Paradise in Turnov for the exhibition Crystals in the Service of Technical Progress. The third place was awarded to the Museum of Applied Arts in Prague for the exhibition Cabinets: Masterpieces of Artistic Craft from the 16th and 17th Centuries from Czech Collections.

There is also a category for museum publications, where the winner was the book František Kalivoda (1913-1971): Visions and Returns of Modernism, published by the Museum of the City of Brno. The second place was taken by the T. G. M. Museum in Rakovník for the publication Royal Jewels from Mšece and Řevničov: Unique Finds from the Migration Period from Central Bohemia. Third place went to the Podblanice Museum for the publication Building the Prince's Dream: The Landscape Park in Vlašim in the 18th and 19th Centuries.

A special award was given to the North Bohemian Gallery of Fine Arts in Litoměřice for the publication Tomorrow’s Devotees: The Art of Seeing/Mystics, Esotericists, Medium and Automatists in Czech Visual Art, Gočár Gallery for the project Gočár Gallery in the Automatic Mills, and the National Technical Museum for the project General Repair of the Steam Locomotive 464.102 Ušatá.

Sixty museums and galleries submitted 93 projects to the national competition in the categories of Museum Exhibition of the Year, Museum Publication of the Year, and Museum Achievement of the Year. The awarded projects will be presented at the National Opening of the Museum Night Festival, whose 20th edition will begin on May 17 in Pardubice.

The Museum Achievement of the Year 2022 was the reconstruction of the Army Museum Žižkov and its new exhibitions. In the Museum Exhibition category, the first prize went to the Central Bohemian Museum in Roztoky near Prague for the permanent archaeology exhibition titled Archevita: Traces of the Ages. In the museum publications category, the book Sacred Art in an Unholy Time: Czech Sacred Art 1948-1989, published by the Museum of Art Olomouc, won.