Plzeňský region will build a gallery for 820 million CZK if the state provides 60%

Plzeň - The Plzeň Region will construct a new regional gallery of fine arts for 820 million crowns, provided that the Ministry of Culture allocates 480 million to it. This stems from a memorandum that was approved today by regional representatives. The signatory will also be the city of Plzeň, which is contributing land in the center and infrastructure to the project. The ministry will sign the memorandum only after it has the funds in its budget. The Association of Regions of the Czech Republic is trying to advocate for resources for the regional cultural facilities development program at the Ministry of Finance and the government, calling for one billion crowns each year. This was stated by Deputy Governor Marcela Krejsová (ODS) to ČTK.

"We are not building yet. However, the memorandum opens the way for further negotiations with the Ministry of Finance," she stated after a three-hour discussion among the representatives. According to Krejsová, the economic deputy from the Ministry of Culture preliminarily promised the Plzeň Region compensation for 60 percent of the costs. The state's share should amount to 480 million and be released in four payments of 120 million each.

According to Governor Josef Bernard (ČSSD), the new gallery project exceeds the borders of the region, and it would be a mistake not to utilize the potential state support and not to build the gallery. "There is no other region that has richer collections. The selection of the building proposal took place without the intervention of politicians. And if we do not receive 480 million crowns from the state, we will not invest additional money, and we will suspend the project," he said.

Similar memoranda have also been signed by Brno and Ostrava for a cultural center and library. The Plzeň gallery, which has had building permission since last year, would host permanent exhibitions. About 95 percent of the 10,000 exhibits valued at over one billion crowns are currently in storage, while the Plzeň gallery possesses the second most valuable collection of interwar modernism after the National Gallery.

Moreover, the cramped storage facilities in the Masné krámy, originally a medieval building without air conditioning, violate the law on the protection of museum collections and do not meet the obligation to present the collections. "We are, along with Ostrava, the only gallery in the Czech Republic that does not have a permanent exhibition due to spatial reasons," stated gallery director Roman Musil. At the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Culture inspected the gallery. Both criticisms were noted in a protocol, but no sanctions have been applied yet.

"The memorandum is one of the first and fundamental steps," said Krejsová. The Ministry of Culture, the city of Plzeň, and today also the region approved the wording of the proposal.

The new gallery emerged from 89 architectural proposals, of which about a tenth were foreign. "I am very satisfied with it. We had an excellently assembled committee of extraordinary experts that deliberated for three days and carefully considered all the anonymous proposals," said Musil. The architectural firm Kuba & Pilař won, which he claims is one of the most highly regarded studios in the Czech Republic.