Plzeň regional councilors will vote on a memorandum about the gallery

Kuba Pilař architects, winning competition design

Plzeň - The representatives of the Plzeň Region are expected to vote today on a memorandum concerning the funding of a new building for the Gallery of Fine Arts in Plzeň. The construction of a facility for an institution that has a large part of its collections stored in depots has been in preparation for years. The gallery would not only solve its long-standing problems, but it would also be one of the few public cultural institutions that received a new building in line with contemporary needs after 1989.

The memorandum on joint financing is to be signed by the region, the city of Plzeň, and the Ministry of Culture, which could cover 60 percent of the anticipated costs of 820 million crowns.

The planned gallery has had a building permit since last year, but the region lacks the funds for it. The Ministry of Culture has had an investment program for several years to support regional cultural institutions, but it depends on whether money will flow into it, which has not happened so far. The Ministry of Culture has preliminarily promised the Plzeň Region reimbursement of 60 percent of the costs.

The new building of the West Bohemian Gallery is to be located in the U Zvonu area. In the past, there was a wait for the transport situation in the area to be resolved, and ecological burdens also had to be removed, but the construction failed earlier due to political unwillingness. The region had previously stated that it would start construction if it could secure funds from European funds.

The parties currently leading the Plzeň Region have enshrined in the coalition agreement that the regional leadership will make every effort to obtain multi-source funding for the new gallery.

The building, which is to integrate exhibition halls, offices, and depots, should be built according to the awarded project by the studio Kuba & Pilař architects. The competition was held back in 2009. The new construction should, in addition to providing sufficient space, also replace the current historical buildings that are not ideal for the gallery. Most of the collections are currently in depots, while the Plzeň gallery owns, after the National Gallery, the second most valuable collection of interwar modernism, for example.