Prague, Dec 7 (CTK) – The new director of the Czech Centres network will be Ondrej Cerny, current head of the Czech Centre in Munich, who will replace Monika Koblerova as of March 1, Michaela Lagronova, spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry that operates the Czech Centres abroad, told CTK on Thursday.
Outgoing Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek tapped Cerny as the new director in mid-November, preferring him to another two candidates nominated by a commission comprised of representatives of the ministry and the Czech centres.
The commission shortlisted the three final nominees from a total of 11 applicants.
Cerny, 55, was the director of the Arts and Theatre Institute in Prague in 1996-2007 and the National Theatre in Prague in 2007-2012. He headed the Czech Centre in Munich from 2014.
In 2016, Czech centres organised 2,300 events and had 2.8 million visitors.
Koblerova recently said new Czech centres could be open in Tel Aviv, New York, Soul and Tokyo.
Koblerova was installed as the Czech Centres director following the April dismissal of Jiri Zavesicky from the post.
Zavesicky was sacked amid a dispute over filling the post of the head of the Czech Centre in Paris. Zavesicky refused to fill it with the relevant competition winner, Jean-Gaspard Palenicek, which caused uproar among the French cultural and academic spheres. They complained with Czech diplomacy and Zaoralek finally decided to sack Zavesicky.
The Czech Centre in Paris has been without a head since January. Last month, the ministry launched the fourth tender for the post, after the previous three ended inconclusively.
Earlier this year, personnel changes were made at the head of some other Czech Centres as well. The Stockholm centre is newly headed by Zuzana Kabelkova, the Brussels centre by Jitka Panek Jurkova and the Vienna centre by Mojmir Jerabek.
The Czech Centres are a state-subsidised organisation supervised by the Foreign Ministry. They consists of 22 branches in countries across three continents. Their task is to promote Czech culture and science and boost business relations.
