A partial transcript of Episode 18 of THE ART MOVEMENT. To listen to the full radio show, CLICK HERE.

“Earlier I mentioned that the exhibitions themselves were essentially nothing to write about. At least as far as the ones I visited was concerned. But that doesn’t mean they were all bad. Far from it. I guess there was something to like about every one of them. But some of them really stood out. For example, I liked two in the historical building of the National Museum.

One of them was on the Velvet Revolution of 1989, which presents the events of the second half of the 1980s, the Velvet Revolution itself and the period until the elections of June 1990. It’s more of an overview than anything really insightful but it’s a nice refresher and well-suited to these times in which democracy just seems to be vulnerable in various parts of the world.

The other exhibition that really catches your eye is the Hall of Minerals, which was first opened by Professor Karel Vrba in 1892 and was therefore one of the first exhibitions opened in the Historic Building after its construction.

The current exhibition is actually organized in its original form, and the display was the result of a collaboration between Vrna and the architect Josef Schulz, who designed the Historical Building of the National Museum of Prague. The collection as a whole includes more than 100,000 minerals but only 4% of the collection is currently exhibited.

When you walk into the hall, you see so many of these minerals that you’re really taken aback. All the glitter and colours and just natural beauty — it really quite a breathtaking sight and so well curated. It’s almost overwhelming.

I posted pictures of it on my instagram and one of the comments remarked that they thought I had taken a picture of a cake display and it really is true. Some of those pieces do look good enough to eat. I enjoyed the exhibition of the State Czech Symbols from 1918 to present day, including the national anthems, the flag and just that type of stuff.

And just as a little trivia, the flag of the Czech Republic is white, red and blue. And the traditional symbolic meaning of these colors is as follows. The white color stands for the people of the Czech Republic and their peaceful nature and honesty. Red color means courage, valor and patriotism of the nation. The blue symbolizes vigilance, truth, loyalty and perseverance.”

“So, last week, I mentioned that there is currently an initiative in Prague where, if you choose to visit one of nine of the museums in the city, you’re given a ticket that allows you to visit nine for the price of one over the course of five days. This is not an initiative that was started to encourage people to visit the museums after the lockdown, and has actually been in place since at least last year.

As expected, I didn’t have enough time to visit all nine because I’m not on holiday and because I also happen to be quite busy but also because museums generally tend to close too early.

There are reasons for that as artworks too need to breathe and proper cleanups of the place need to be done in order to protect whatever artifacts or historical artifact is displayed but as a result, during the week for most people, it is particularly hard to sporadically take trips to the museum.

Yet, that’s when I like to go, on weekday mornings, because I know that unless I encounter a party of schoolkids on a school trip or the annoying tourists wearing that deadly sandals and socks combo, I know there’s going to be less people, which would allow me to have a more immersive experience.

Of about four museums I got to visit, my favorite experience was easily that of the historical building of the National Museum in Prague. And it wasn’t so much the exhibitions, which in general, in all of the museums I visited, were a bit underwhelming. But it was the building itself that is absolutely stunning. It was actually closed for almost a decade for renovations and only recently reopened for the public, though renovation is not yet completed.

The current historical building of the National Museum of Prague, which is located in Wenceslas Square, actually dates back to 1891 and as mentioned, it was built according to plans by architect Josef Schulz. It has also been a national cultural monument since 1962.

The style of the architecture is neo-renaissance, which is a type of architecture by a group of 19th century revivalists who drew inspiration from a wide range of classicizing Italian modes. The entrance hall to the Historical Building is grand, with sweeping staircases, intricate stonework and beautiful ceiling frescos.

The dome hall is absolutely breathtaking. Not only is it adorned with some beautiful frescos and a cupola of stained glass. But it also offers an amazing view of Wenceslas Square. So, you can easily spend half an hour in that hall alone or more, and not even notice time going by. And that’s kind of what I did and I was glad.

It’s worth mentioning that the Historical Building is connected via an underground tunnel to a New Building of the National Museum of Prague, which is just across the street from it. This modern expansion means that as soon as the renovations of the Historical Building in Prague is completed, Prague will have expanded its exhibition space considerably.

And while everybody knows that Prague is truly a gem of arts and culture of the entire European continent, perhaps the most Bohemian of all capital cities — if you’ll pardon the pun — this museum expansion makes me think or predict that Prague will truly become a major center for the art market in the not so distant future.”

A partial transcript of Episode 17 of THE ART MOVEMENT. To listen to the full radio show, CLICK HERE.

I actually have visited a number of museums over this past week and it was amazing! My intention at first was just to visit the Historical Building of the National Museum in Prague, where I have been for about four months now. And I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to do it due to the pandemic but unlike many parts of the world, Prague is relatively safe and by all means, almost completely reopened. At least for the time being…

Nonetheless, this means that museums are reopened too and I was somehow able to schedule my weekly tasks to fit in various trips to the museums. And I say various because here in Prague, there is an initiative happening whereby you can’t get a ticket for just one museum — you get a ticket and you can visit nine museums over the course of five days. And that ticket costs 200 crowns, which roughly speaking is less than 10 euro and to give you another example, it’s basically the price of four ripe, juicy avocados.

Now, this is an initiative that involves nine museums across the city and I wasn’t able to visit all of them but some of them, including the Historical Building of the National Museum, which underwent an almost decade long renovation, which isn’t even completed yet but just seeing what it looks like so far was a breathtaking experience. I don’t want to say it too loud, but that building alone is worth the price of the ticket.

And the initiative itself isn’t something that the Czech Ministry of Culture just came up with to encourage people to visit museums again after the pandemic — it actually started in late 2019 as far as I understand it.

But it does make me think that having initiatives in place like that will make it easier for the cultural sector of any country to encourage people to experience cultural events of various kinds even after a long time of the same people being told not to leave the house.