Creation of new exhibitions
New permanent exhibitions in the Historical and New Buildings of the National Museum
The work on the creation of new permanent exhibitions proceeded in the set framework until the end of 2017, i.e. Ing. arch. Daniel Kříž's architectural team continued work on the architectural study, which was completed and approved in the spring 2018. In the first months of 2018, contracts were entered into with the architects of historical exhibitions, Akad. Arch. Daniel Dvořák for 20th Century History, Ing. arch. Petra Janda for the archaeological exhibition “People”, Ing. arch. Lukáš Brom for History until 1914, and Ing. arch. Ondřej Busta for the Treasury and the Cabinet of Minting. Contracts were concluded with Ing. arch Martin Hejl for the multi-media exhibition in the connecting corridor and with the team of RNDr. Petr Mareš for cooperation on the project of the Children's Museum. All architectural studies were submitted in September to November 2018 and approved by the management of the National Museum.
At the beginning of 2018, two above-threshold commissions were announced for the designer of permanent exhibitions. There were no bids submitted for the tender, and so it had to be cancelled. The situation was solved by contracting the architectonic team of Ing. arch. Daniel Kříž for consultation on project documentation, which helped the National Museum to overcome this problem. The completion of the project documentation with the help of the exhibition architect is planned for late January and early February 2018. The above threshold tender for exhibition graphic designer, which was announced at the end of February 2018, ran a different course. There were five bids; however, none of them met the qualification requirements and all participants had to be excluded and the commission cancelled. In summer 2018, the commission was reworked with the participation of the company CHECKDESIGN, without whose guarantee of quality and objectivity the commission was not attractive and credible for graphic studios. During the cooperation, the commission was divided into 5 parts according to the individual sections, with the option of bidding for one or more parts. Thanks to this adjustment, the flexibility in the tender was much greater. There were 27 bids, with some studios bidding for all 5 parts. Due to complicated administration, the contracts with the tender winners will be concluded in 2019.
Purchases of collections were made in 2018 for new permanent exhibitions to the amount of CZK 33,000,000. These were zoological models, mineralogical specimens, meteorites, fossils and anthropological models. For historical collections, they included the acquisition of coins and objects of classical archaeology.
In 2018, the preparations were underway for opening the Historical Building, primarily concerned with: coordination of the installation of temporary exhibitions; completion of interior premises which were to be open to visitors; coordination of concurrent construction activities and visitor traffic after the partial reopening of the building; and provisional orientation in the newly reconstructed space. In cooperation with Ing. arch. Smutný the provisional navigation was prepared, which will be removed after the completion of the renovation and replaced with definitive markings and navigation across the complex of the Historical and New Buildings of the National Museum, including the connecting corridor.
Jan Palach Memorial in Všetaty
In 2018 the works on the exhibition project continued. It will include recently found and acquired artefacts associated directly with Jan Palach and his family. Firstly, there are objects documenting the trade of Josef Palach (father of Jan Palach) in the building of the memorial – signs announcing the sale of ice-cream. Another collection item is the national flag with which the body of Jan Palach was covered after his deed and during his funeral.
At the same time, the graphic concept was prepared, the janpalach.cz website was incorporated in the whole exhibition and transferred to the administration of the National Museum, and finally the building of the memorial dedicated to Jan Palach was created as a comprehensive project in cooperation with external entities.
Photographic documentation began together with the commencement of the conversion of the original family house to the Memorial. It will be used in the book dedicated to Jan Palach, the architecture of the current building and the architecture of the Memorial.
The opening of the memorial to the public is planned for 22 October 2019.