The National Gallery Prague costs energy 40 million CZK more, will reduce building lighting

Prague - The National Gallery in Prague (NGP), which manages and operates six historic buildings in the capital, will spend approximately 40 million crowns more on energy this year than last year. This is roughly double the amount that the gallery has spent in recent years. The costs of operating the buildings, personnel costs, and security expenditures account for 70 percent of the amount that one of the largest collection institutions in the country receives from the state. For exhibition activities, it has to rely on revenue from entrance fees, educational activities, rentals, and grants and subsidies. In an interview with ČTK, the gallery's director Alicja Knastová stated this.

"We are trying to reduce consumption through internal measures. The NGP buildings are heritage sites, and some of them, especially the Trade Fair Palace, are in poor technical condition. Therefore, the implementation of sophisticated technical measures is very limited,” said the director regarding possible energy savings. According to her, the gallery is therefore introducing less demanding but also less effective measures, such as replacing light bulbs with LED fixtures, minimizing the lighting time of buildings, and strictly limiting the heating of office spaces to the legal limit.

"We increasingly need sponsorship support. For several years, we have also been receiving the same amount for personnel costs. Regardless of inflation or the labor market situation, especially in Prague. So yes, the NGP is underfunded, both in terms of caring for historic properties and in terms of resources for exhibition activities,” she said.

In recent years, the NGP has received approximately 300 million crowns from the state, of which 137 million is for personnel costs, leaving 163 million for operations. Last year, the gallery received an extraordinary contribution from the ministry for revenue losses due to the pandemic amounting to 44 million crowns and six million crowns for exhibitions, making a total of 350 million crowns received from the founder last year.

"We are managing to maintain very high-quality relationships with long-term partners. However, it is evident that in this uncertain situation, companies are carefully considering whom to provide their finances to and what they will get in return, and establishing new partnerships is a challenge,” the director stated. She reminded that the current trend in Europe is to cooperate more in the area of CSR (corporate social responsibility) than in traditional forms of sponsorship. "We see this as an essential part of developing our audience. Nevertheless, we are in the process of negotiations with potential art patrons. After all, this is a cornerstone of our institution,” she recalled the founding of the National Gallery, when its direct predecessor, the Society of Patriotic Friends of Art, was supported by patrons from the nobility and the bourgeoisie.