< /p> Ceremonial opening of the newly reconstructed building of the Military Historical Institute and the exhibits of the Army Museum, October 20, 2022, Prague.
Prague – The museum achievement of 2022 was the reconstruction of the Žižkov Army Museum and its new exhibition. For them, the Military Historical Institute Prague received first place in the relevant category of the Gloria musaealis Awards, which reward the best performances of domestic museum curators and institutions in the past year. After four years of reconstruction, the museum at the foot of Prague's Vítkov hill was opened with the participation of war veterans and then-president Miloš Zeman last year on the eve of the October 28 holiday.
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The jury of the competition stated that the reconstruction of the museum “took place in a well-thought-out interplay of building modifications and the creation of seven exhibitions”. According to the jury, the project also balanced traditional practices with modern elements.
The reconstruction of the museum, which was built at the turn of the 20s and 30s of the last century, was originally supposed to cost about 724 million crowns. However, according to the findings of the Supreme Audit Office (SAO), additional work increased the price by 192 million. According to the SAO, some of them were based on objective and unpredictable reasons, additional work worth at least 28 million crowns resulted from errors in the project documentation.
For example, the museum has a new entrance that leads under the original court. In the basement, which received a glass ceiling, there is a reception, from where visitors can get to the exhibits or take the elevator to the cafe. Access to the museum will also be possible from the bike path from the back of the building. In total, it offers over 5,000 square meters of exhibition space.
The museum awards were presented today in the Municipal House in Prague. The judges evaluated the project of reconstruction of the Central Pootaví Museum with a new exhibition as the second best museum achievement. Third place went to the Monument of National Literature for the opening of the Museum of Literature. As the new headquarters of an institution with a seventy-year tradition, the museum opened in the autumn in Prague's Bubenča and wants to be not only a seat for the memorial's collections, but also a place for larger meetings with the public.
The Gloria musaealis award has three categories. In the Museum Exhibition of the Year 2022 category, the Central Bohemian Museum in Roztoky near Prague received the first prize for its permanent exhibition of archeology called Archevita: Traces of the Ages. Second place went to the staff of the Central Bohemian Region Gallery for the exhibition A Path Predestined by Destiny, which was dedicated to the painters Jitka and Květa Válovy. The judges awarded third place to the Municipal Museum of Horažďovice for the permanent exhibition Mind and Hammer: Minerals, Mining, Gold and Pearls of Upper Pootaví.
Museum publications also have their own category, the book Sacred Art in the Unholy Age: Czech Sacred was the winner. art 1948–1989, published by the Olomouc Museum of Art. Second place went to the Museum of Southeast Moravia in Zlín for the publication The Story of Vizovice Pastry, and third place to the Prague Capital Gallery for the book Ivan Meštrović (1883–1962): Sculptor and Citizen of the World, which accompanied the exhibition of this Croatian architect, sculptor and writer.
< p>Last year, the Museum of Tatra Trucks became a museum project, which was created in the reconstructed building of the former foundry of the automobile company in Kopřivnice. The aim of the competition is to draw the public's attention to the best performances of museum institutions and their employees in the creation of exhibitions and expositions or in the preservation and accessibility of objects or sites of cultural heritage. This year, the organizers assessed a record 121 submitted projects from 73 museums and galleries.
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