Prague, April 10 (CTK) – Up to 80 million crowns annually are to be spent on the purchase of domestic plastic arts younger than 50 years in the next three years, daily Lidove noviny (LN) writes today and adds that the Culture Ministry alerts to that the country has lacked a relevant state gallery for 75 years.
The government approved the new subsidy programme today and the subsidies are to be granted already this year.
Being part of the concept for the development of Czech museums for 2015-2020, the programme will primarily focus on regional centres. Big institutions supervised by the Culture Ministry, such as the National Gallery in Prague will not be allowed to apply for these subsidies.
The subsidies will be provided to museums, galleries and other institutions managing art collections that are listed in the Central registry of museum collections, the ministry’s spokesman Simona Cigankova told CTK.
The acquisition fund is to provide money for paintings, sculptures, photographs as well as audio and video art, LN writes.
It writes that the last institution that focused on modern domestic art was the Modern Gallery that was abolished in 1942.
“The absence of such an institution is unusual internationally,” the ministry said.
It fears that this may result in theoreticians losing sight of developments on the domestic scene. That is why Culture Minister Daniel Herman will propose to the government today to set up a special subsidy programme, LN writes.
“With regard to the future, it is necessary to ensure that works that are typical of the developments of plastic arts in the Czech Republic be represented in public collections,” the report Herman will submit says.
Experts say the situation is mainly due to the chronically low budget of the Culture Ministry.
“Any initiative would be excellent, but spending on culture has been rather decreasing of late,” LN quotes curator Pavel Kappel as saying.
The works of the other half of the 20th century, which the fund would eye, include such significant artists as Mikulas Medek, Adriena Simotova or Zdenek Sykora. The works have been fetching higher and higher sums, LN writes.
It writes that in spite of the initial costs, the ministry may eventually save no less sums to galleries for the art of recent several years, whose value will be increasing with time and the authors’ becoming widely known.
The subsidy applications are to be checked by a nine-member Fund Council, comprised of experts from the ministry, the university environment, the Czech Association of Art in the Czech Lands, the Council of Galleries, a curator and others, LN writes.
It writes that the ministry’s proposal counts with a gallery getting a subsidy of up to 70 percent of the price of the work bought.
It also caps the sum. It must not exceed an equivalent of one million euros depending on the exchange rate valid on the day when the application is submitted, LN writes.
It writes that no work originating in the period concerned has reached this price.
($1=24.999 crowns)
ms,kva/t/pv,rtj
