The rector of UMPRUM was elected the art historian Jindřich Vybíral

Prague - The Academic Senate of the University of Applied Arts (UMPRUM) today elected Jindřich Vybíral, the current head of the Department of Theory and History of Art, as the new rector. He had no opponent in the election. He is expected to take office after being appointed by the president of the republic from March 2019. Vybíral will replace Jindřich Smetana, who led the institution for two terms.

Professor Vybíral plans to build on the work of his predecessor and, in addition to establishing workshop facilities on Mikulandská Street, he wants to continue preparing the program for the restoration of applied arts, intensify collaboration with industry, and further support artistic research, the school stated in a press release. "In addition, he would like to deepen the topic of internationalization, expand interdisciplinary cooperation, and focus on the theme of social responsibility," it added.

The reconstruction of the former primary school on Mikulandská Street in the center of Prague into technological and workshop facilities for UMPRUM began this spring. The construction, costing around 420 million crowns, is expected to take about a year and a half. In the summer, two floors collapsed at the construction site, but the building did not have to be demolished. Under Vybíral's predecessor Smetana, the school also began using the term UMPRUM instead of its abbreviation VŠUP, which better refers to the school's history and its content.

Fifty-eight-year-old Vybíral studied Czech studies, history, and the history of art at universities in Ostrava, Brno, and London. In the late 1980s, he worked at the then Faculty of Education in Ostrava, from 1989 to 1997 at the National Gallery in Prague. Since 1996, he has been working at the University of Applied Arts, where he lectures on the history of architecture and design. He has served as the university's prorector and was the chairperson of the academic senate from 2011 to 2018. He has been the head of the Department of History and Theory of Art since 2006.

He focuses primarily on the history of 19th and 20th-century architecture and the methodology of art history. He is the author of dozens of studies and books, including a comprehensive publication on architect Leopold Bauer (2015) and books such as The Birth of the Metropolis (1997), A Century of Heirs and Founders (1999), Czech Architecture on the Threshold of Modernity (2002), and Young Masters (2002). Vybíral is a member of the Scientific Council of the National Gallery, the National Heritage Institute, and Ostrava University, a member of the supervisory board of the Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and a member of the editorial boards of the journal Art and the British Journal of Art Historiography.

The University of Applied Arts was the first domestic university whose rector was dismissed by the president. This happened in 2006 when painter Boris Jirků was the dismissed rector. The president made this decision at the proposal of the academic senate, which was dissatisfied with his work. Many educators and students of the school criticized Jirků for participating in the rector election as a member of the academic senate. While the law does not prohibit this, the senate pointed out that a person holding the position of university rector must possess moral qualities. According to the senate, voting for oneself does not reflect those qualities. The victory of Jirků in the election was decided by just one vote.

The University of Applied Arts in Prague was founded in 1885. It is divided into departments of architecture, design, fine arts, applied arts, graphics, and the Department of Theory and History of Art. The individual departments are further divided into studios according to their specializations. The school opens to the public twice a year for student work presentations called Artsemestr. It organizes more than 15 exhibition events each year, about half of which take place abroad.