The exhibition about panel houses is being extended, competing for the museum award

Prague - The Prague Museum of Decorative Arts has two representatives in different categories in the competition for the best museum achievements, exhibitions, or publications. It is nominated in the museum achievement category for the reconstruction of its main building, while among the submitted exhibitions is a result of a research project on seventy Czech settlements. The exhibition Residence: Panel Housing is now being extended due to high interest and will last until July 22.

The national competition Gloria musaealis will announce this year’s winners on May 17 at the Municipal House in Prague. A record number of 62 museums and galleries entered the 16th edition with 99 competition projects, said Anna Komárková, executive director of the organizing Association of Museums and Galleries, to ČTK.

The exhibition Residence: Panel Housing maps the history of Czech settlements from 1945 to 1989 and the circumstances of their creation. It was originally supposed to end in May. Nearly 15,000 interested individuals visited it in the first three months, said Radka Potměšilová from the Museum of Decorative Arts to ČTK. The exhibition is the culmination of a five-year research and exhibition project, resulting in the books Paneláci 1 and 2, awarded the Magnesia Litera for the best professional book of 2017 and second place in the competition for the Most Beautiful Czech Book.

Among the exhibitions and displays, there are over 40 projects in the Gloria musaealis competition. The Museum of the Capital City of Prague, the National Technical Museum, the National Agricultural Museum, the Museum and Gallery in Prostějov, the Museum of the City of Ústí nad Labem, the Museum of Novojičínsko, and the Regional Gallery of Liberec each have two nominated exhibitions.

Institutions from across the republic have applied, for example, the Moravian Gallery in Brno nominated the successful exhibition Tribes 90 reflecting the phenomenon of alternative culture of the 90s, the Regional Museum in Olomouc the exhibition Loving in Nature: A Guide to the Intimate Life of Animals, the National Technical Museum the exhibition Man in Replacements or the Museum of the City of Ústí nad Labem the exhibition Medieval Ústí.

Among the 15 registered museum achievements is the reconstruction of a timber house in Kristiánov in the Jizera Mountains, managed by the Museum of Glass and Costume Jewelry in Jablonec nad Nisou. It is the only preserved building of the once significant glassmaking settlement of Kristiánov. The National Gallery in Prague submitted the revitalization of the St. Agnes' Monastery complex. The museum publication of the year category has about forty submissions, most of which are accompanying books or catalogs for the submitted exhibitions.