| Volume VIII | No. 2 | February 2000 |
In January, snowstorms raged not only through the Eastern United
States but through a large swath of Europe, including the Czech Republic.
But the Central European political scene did not take any vacations.
In Prague, two Czech political leaders, Prime Minister Milos Zeman and Speaker of the Parliament Vaclav Klaus, signed an agreement deepening the cooperation of their political parties, the Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD) and the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), which offers a better prospect for the survival of the CSSD minority government, possibly even to the next scheduled parliamentary elections in 2002. Both leaders hope that in two years the Czechs will feel the effects of the already improving economy, and reward their parties accordingly.
If the so-called "Opposition Agreement" of 1998 was merely about procedural arrangements, the new agreement is a large step towards a "grand coalition" type of cooperation. Although ODS would not participate in the Social Democratic government, the leftist CSSD had to agree to various substantive demands of the rightist ODS. In exchange, ODS has agreed to support the budget for 2000 and to let the government govern. The good news of the January agreement are the commitments to foster Czech integration into the EU as well as the increase of military spending commensurate with NATO membership.
Some Czechs warn that power-sharing arrangements of this kind could cause problems in the future. For example in Vienna the far-right Freedom Party is the beneficiary of the lengthy rule of the grand coalition. In Prague, the cooperation of ODS and CSSD saw the unexpected rise of the Communists. Viewed in this context, the reactions to recent developments in Austria make for an interesting comparison: while the European Union and Israel sounded strongly-worded warnings, the reactions from Prague, and also from Bratislava and Budapest were, with the exception of President Havel, more cautious. For one thing, Austria hinted to the EU aspirants that their reactions will affect the Austrian stance towards EU enlargement. And a discussion is underway about whether the world does not apply double standards when censuring the far-right on one hand and the far-left on the other.
It seems that in Central Europe a cold January does not stand in the
way of hot discussions with no ready-made answers.
Senior officials of the Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD) and
the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) signed on January 26 five amendments to
the so-called Opposition Agreement, the basis of the minority Social Democratic
government. This step will ensure ODS support for the 2000 budget bill.
The senior opposition ODS, however, has made its definitive support for
the draft budget in the final reading conditional on personnel changes
in the CSSD minority cabinet.
The supplemental agreements concern the state budget, changes in the
election system, Czech EU entry, conditions for the ODS's tolerance of
the CSSD government and communication between the two parties' groups of
deputies. The two parties concurred that they will speed up the debating
of the legislation necessary for EU entry. Under demands from ODS, the
Social Democrats agreed to several commitments:- they will increase defense
spending by 2,2 % a year; privatize additional 120 billion CZK worth of
state property; reform the pension system; gradually eliminate the budget
deficit; further deregulate prices; and not to increase the share of mandatory
spending in the budget.
The proposed changes in the electoral law strengthen the position of
bigger parties, although ODS eventually backed off from its demand for
a majority voting system.
President Vaclav Havel raised concerns about the procedures which led
to a strengthening of the opposition pact. According to him, the issues
covered by the latest CSSD-ODS agreements are a matter for parliamentary
discussion and should be discussed in public. Petra Buzkova, a prominent
member of the CSSD, who has served as deputy chairwoman both of the CSSD
and the Lower House of the Parliament, has decided to give up her party
post at the next session of the CSSD Central Committee. She explained her
decision by saying that in particular she disagrees with the new election
law agreed to by the ODS and the CSSD. Some Social Democrats were unhappy
with the agreement, warning that it excessively ties the government’s hands,
but the constitutional changes were passed by the lower house of the Parliament,
where the two parties enjoy a constitutional majority. The passage of the
changes seems less certain in the Senate.
Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy arrived in Prague for a two-day
stay as the first Israeli Foreign Minister to visit the Czech Republic.
He praised the Czech government for its efforts to pass laws aimed against
anti-Semitism and towards compensation of Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
The talks with Prime Minister Milos Zeman highlighted opportunities of
Israeli companies to participate in the privatization process in the Czech
Republic. Further enhancement of bilateral relations, European integration,
and the Middle East peace process were discussed at the meeting with Vaclav
Klaus, Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies.
The Israeli Foreign Minister was also received by President Havel, who
returned to Prague from Stockholm, where he participated in an international
conference on the Holocaust. The two politicians commemorated the 55th
anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. President
Havel supported the request of former Auschwitz prisoners that January
27, the day of the liberation of Auschwitz, become an important day - the
day of Nazi victims and the day of the fight against violence, racism,
anti-Semitism and xenophobia.
On January 26, President Havel visited Stockholm to take part in an international forum on the Holocaust. Following is his address delivered at the forum.
Tomorrow we shall commemorate the day, fifty-five years ago, that
witnessed the liberation of the concentration camp at Oswiecim - a site
of suffering and tragic death for thousands of human beings.
It is my conviction that the tragedy of the Holocaust victims must be remembered again and again, among other reasons, because its last surviving witnesses are still with us. No one but they can convey to us a first-hand historical experience teaching us that every act of racism, or of intolerance towards minorities, may be the beginning of an onslaught on the very foundations of human civilization. Behind every manifestation of prejudice towards the Roma, and behind every anti-Semitic remark, there is an encoded threat of transports and gas chambers.
The awareness of the fact that the Holocaust, through its tragic aftermath, still affects the life of society today was the starting point for the project Holocaust Phenomenon, launched in the Czech Republic under my patronage. The objective of this undertaking is to fill the considerable gaps in our knowledge about the tragic moments in our own past, especially about the Holocaust of Jews and of the Roma; to establish a discussion across society concerning those events; and, to help the younger generation to understand the Holocaust as a part of our history.
But the Holocaust is not only a subject to be taught. Its victims are
still alive, and must not be forgotten - because their experience is a
warning to us all. It is obligation to give these survivors our attention
and care; to relate to them; to listen attentively to what they tell us.
Their voice must be heard by those who will shape the civilization of the
third millennium.
In the Nineties, Mr. Ivo Sanc served as mayor of Kutna Hora, a historic
town to the east of Prague. Now he is doing the same job in a very different
setting: the town of Gjilane in Kosovo. Mr. Sanc was appointed by
the U.N administration in Kosovo and charged with getting the basic services
in town up and running. Together with one other Czech mayor, Sanc is part
of the Czech contribution to the rebuilding of the war-torn province. The
governing task feels like returning to ancient history, Sanc said to a
reporter. "We must solve the most basic problems: where will people live,
if they can turn on the light, if the water runs, if people go to work
in the morning and where, and what belongs to who." He learned about the
job opening in a newspaper ad, and his experience and knowledge of English
proved to be good qualifications.
Negotiations with citizens are not easy in a community where one seventh
of the population is Serbian. Sanc says he tries to prevent a winner-takes-all
atmosphere: "Albanians know they will be the decisive power here. Serbs
are in the corner, they have to try hard to survive and preserve their
culture. Our task is to prevent discrimination. The minority should have
access to education, jobs, and local government. A geologist by profession,
Sanc has worked in some of the world's trouble spots, and is taking in
stride life in a place where shootings occur one or two nights per week.
"I feel like a small cog in a machine that is trying to help solve the
world's problems," says Sanc. "Who would have imagined that fifteen years
ago? Back then, everything seemed destined for the same course until the
end of time."
On January 26, the Czech Television Council, the nine-member supervisory
body of the public-service broadcaster Czech Television (CT), appointed
Dusan Chmelicek for a six-year term as the new general director of the
station. Chmelicek, 32, who started working at the station two years ago
as the head of the legal department, recently took over the department
for strategic planning.
The new director takes over after Jakub Puchalsky, the previous director,
announced his resignation last December. Puchalsky instituted some welcome
changes, but in the end was unable to master the management of the television
behemoth with 3000 employees and a 4.5 billion crown (120 million USD)
annual budget, and faced calls to step down from both inside and outside
the station.
Czech Television is the successor of the originally state-controlled, monopoly Czechoslovak television. It was established as an independent, public service broadcaster in 1992 with a mandate to offer news programming, educational and artistic programming, programming serving the interests of various minority groups, as well as general entertainment. It has two networks: CT 1 serves broad audiences, while CT 2 focuses on high-brow, specialized and niche programming.
Czech TV is financed by license fees and advertising, the amount of
which is restricted. It competes against private broadcasters, dependent
solely on advertising revenues. In the last quarter of 1999, the audience
share of CT 1 was 27.8% and CT 2 7.3%, while the private TV Nova enjoyed
44.4% of viewers, and another private broadcaster, Prima, had 15.1%. Czech
TV is independent of the government and supervised by a 9-member council
appointed by Parliament. While the broadcaster’s relationship with politicians
has been occasionally rocky, Czech TV retained its independence and credibility
and its first director served his full six-year term.
As of January 1, 2000, a new Residency Law for foreigners entering
the territory of the Czech Republic entered into force. The Act on the
Residence of Aliens in the territory of the Czech Republic (Act No. 326/1999
Coll.) significantly changes Czech immigration rules and policy and brings
Czech immigration law closer to relevant EU standards. The most important
task for the Czech Republic in this area is the process of the approximation
of immigration laws with the so-called "Schengen System". The Law is available
in English on the official web site of the Ministry of Interior of the
Czech Republic, at www.mvcr.cz.
The new law affects all US citizens arriving in the Czech Republic who intend to stay there longer than 90 days, for example students, teachers, anyone setting up a new business, etc. Americans still do not need a visa for a tourist/business stay of up to 30 days (if necessary, the stay is extendable by the Immigration Police for up to 90 days). However, for a stay longer than 90 days and/or a stay other than for tourist/business purposes, a visa is required. The most significant change set by the new regulations is the requirement to obtain the visa in advance, before arrival in the Czech Republic. In other words, whereas according to the previous regulations, US citizens could obtain the visa from the Immigration Police in the Czech Republic, starting from January 1, 2000 the visa can be issued only through Czech Embassies abroad.
The Embassy is fully aware of the impact of these changes for people
traveling to the Czech Republic. Therefore, the Embassy in Washington,
D.C. has updated its website with the relevant information for travelers
applying for Czech visas. While the first part of the information is meant
for short term visitors (tourists from countries with the visa obligatory
status), the Information on Visas for Study, Employment and Other Long
Term Visas was prepared for U.S. citizens to help them fulfill new requirements
for acquiring the long-term visa. All information can be easily found
in the section "Consular Info" of the Embassy's website: www.czech.cz/washington.
Since 1995, Mr. Richard Pivnicka has been Honorary Consul of the
Czech Republic in San Francisco, working incessantly for Czech interests
in this dynamic region which includes the high-tech Silicon Valley.
Pivnicka's grandfather came to the United States from the Czech town of Klatovy and settled in Chicago, where Mr. Pivnicka (the proper Czech pronunciation is "pivnichka") was born. He dates the reawakening of his interest in his Czech heritage to his visit to Washington, DC in 1960, when he, together with his father and brother, witnessed the unveiling of a postage stamp dedicated to Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia. Nebraska Senator John Hruska, himself of Czech origin, spoke at the event. The picture of about 1000 people at a banquet in the Willard Hotel in honor of Masaryk is still with him. After the fall of Communism, Mr. Pivnicka saw the opportunity to encourage the cause of freedom in the Czech Republic, and decided to become an honorary consul. The appointment came in 1995, delayed by the break-up of Czechoslovakia in 1993.
His tenure has certainly been fruitful. His prize achievement is the City of San Francisco's $168 million purchase of 247 electric trolley buses from the Czech/US joint venture company ETI. Not resting on his laurels, Mr. Pivnicka has nurtured the Czech Tech Network, a group of Czech nationals, Czech/Americans and American entrepreneurs who are prominent players in Silicon Valley. He also continues to encourage Intel in its consideration to build a several hundred million production facility in the Czech Republic, a country on its “short list” of possible sites.
Mr. Pivnicka has been Vice President and General Counsel for Gerson Bakar and Associates, a major real estate owner and developer in the Western United States. His other activities fit together well: he has been a member of the Arthritis Foundation's Executive Committee and Finance Committee, and in 1989 was named to the Real Estate Committee of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, which was charged with asset and portfolio management of the Church's real estate holdings. He received the Certificate of Honor from the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce for Leadership.
Mr. Pivnicka has also been an active member of Strybing Arboretum, the Urban Land Institute, and currently, the Bay Area General Counsel Group, the Real Estate Section of the State Bar, and is a Trustee of the Djerassi Resident Art Program. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth Club, the oldest and largest free speech forum in the United States. President Vaclav Havel addressed the Club in 1995, and the Charles University Choir performed there in 1998.
Mr. Pivnicka was elected Vice Dean of the San Francisco Consular Corps,
which is composed of members representing 70 countries, and is the third
largest diplomatic community in the U. S. The Czech Foreign Ministry has
recently upgraded his post to Honorary Consul General, an appointment which
signals the Czech government's continuing interest in California and Silicon
Valley in particular.
The number one long-distance runner on the University of New Orleans
team is a freshman from the Czech Republic. Jana Bulirova, twenty-year
old Prague native, came to the US after being contacted by a coach, Ron
Davis, then at University of Maryland-Eastern Shore. Last year she followed
him to the University of New Orleans. Although she has been running distance
races for only three years, she has quickly established herself as a competitor
to be reckoned with. Jana has already set the school record in the 5,000
meter course. She has helped jack up the long-distance limits at the University
of New Orleans with a school-record six top-10 finishes in her seven cross-country
races. "She has become a poster child for our program, a disciplined, highly
motivated athlete whose best performances are ahead of her," says Davis.
Jana’s greatest difficulty? Acclimatization. "It felt like sauna,"
says Jana. "At first we had to train in the early morning hours, and late
in the evenings. Now I have gotten acclimated - to a degree."
Jana is among the growing number of Czech collegiate athletes, including
tennis player Anna Monhartova from Plzen (Pilsen), who is on the team of
Tulane University, who are making a name for themselves - and for the Czech
Republic - in the United States.
For the first time in history, in 1999 Czech exports to the United
States exceeded the country's exports to Russia, which has for many decades
been regarded as a traditional trading partner and sure destination for
Czech products. According to preliminary data by the Ministry of Industry
and Trade, exports to the U.S. amounted to 657 million USD, compared with
386 million USD to Russia. This illustrates profound changes in the
territorial structure of Czech trade, where EU countries and North America
already account for more than 75 percent.
The
dynamics of Czech trade with developed countries has been tremendous in
the last decade and remains very high. For example, December was the second
month in a row in which the growth rate exceeded 20 percent year on year.
To the United States alone, the total volume of bilateral trade more than
doubled since 1994.
Transport items, mainly passenger cars from Skoda Auto (the Czech unit
of the Volkswagen Group), along with electrical equipment and machinery,
led export growth to the EU in 1999. Export results were also boosted
by a surge in raw materials, semi-finished goods, and chemicals. Imports
were led by manufactured consumer goods, machinery, and transport items.
In the case of the United States, Czech exports are dominated by
machinery products, electrical machines and appliances, glass products,
and transport items, while imports are represented by aircraft, electrical
machinery, nuclear reactors, computers, and medical and optical devices.
The newest Czech GSM mobile phone operator, Cesky Mobil, met its
license requirement to cover 37 percent of the population with its network
by January 8, the Transport and Communications Ministry said last week.
Cesky Mobil, a joint venture of the Canadian company TIW and the Czech
IPB bank, was required to build the core of its 900MHz and 1800MHz network
by January 8, three months after winning the license in a state tender.
Cesky Mobil said that as of January 6 it had covered 42 percent of the
population with its signal. The license further obliges the company to
provide a signal which could serve 80 percent of Czech residents by the
end of June. The new operator began selling handsets in order to comply
with the conditions of the license, but has delayed a full commercial roll-out
until March, when its signal should cover a larger part of the population.
The company will compete against the two current operators, EuroTel and
RadioMobil, who together had 1.9 million customers at the end of 1999.
Monopoly gas importer Transgas is seeking a strategic investor for
a planned subsidiary to help capitalize on the state-owned company's existing
fiber-optic telecommunications network. The company has submitted a study
to the Ministry of Industry and Trade detailing its plans. Transgas already
has the fiber optics in place, which currently brings tens of millions
CZK in revenues a year.
Transgas controls one of the existing fiber-optic backbones in the country,
an asset that grows in significance as full voice-service liberalization
looms at the end of this year. The company is presently working with GlobalOne,
a joint venture between Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom and U.S. Sprint,
to offer Czech companies internet service, virtual private networks, and
other high-speed data services. After the acknowledgement that it is going
to select a strategic partner, Transgas hinted that GlobalOne may not be
high on the list.
In Journeys into Czech-Moravian Texas, Sean N. Gallup, photojournalist with Reuters news agency, honors the multicultural richness of rural America by revealing a rich and still-flourishing culture that is relatively unknown. Through a combination of more than one hundred poignant photographs and detailed captions, he gives visual evidence of the traditional connections and variety of contemporary Texas-Czech life and culture. He also shows the power of ethnic belonging as well as the forces of Texas-Czech cultural decline and rejuvenation.
For two years, Gallup criss-crossed communities; during this time he
spent six months in the Fayetteville area, the so-called "cradle of Czech
settlement" in Texas, immersing himself in local culture and everyday life.
There, he documented language, religion, music, folk traditions, and other
aspects of a culture that has evolved from its Czech-Moravian roots to
become uniquely Texas Czech.
With a detailed text based on research and personal interviews and
with sensitive, comprehensive photography, Gallup provides a fine portrait
of today’s Texans descended from Czech immigrants. He also describes Texas-Czech
ethnic identity, organizations, relations with other ethnic groups, and,
in the last section of the book, the ties to the modern Czech Republic.
The book is published by Texas A & M University Press, College Station,
Texas 77843-4354.
This January 11 through 24 in the marvelous town of Palm Springs,
California, the Palm Springs International Film Festival rung in its eleventh
year. Founded by entertainer Sonny Bono, the festival traditionally
offers a selection of vintage films from all over the world, this year
including three from the Czech Republic.
All three Czech films -- "Return of the Idiot" by Sasa Gedeon, "The Bed" by Oskar Reif, and "All My Loved Ones" by Matej Minac -- enjoyed a very warm reception. The film "All my Loved Ones" proved a particularly exceptional success, winning second place in audience voting. It describes the true story of the British entrepreneur Nicholas Winston, who lived in Prague before the outbreak of World War Two and saved 669 children, mostly Jewish, from being deported to concentration camps by sending them to families in Great Britain. Many of these children grew up to become famous artists and scientists, including the British film director Karel Reisz, the writer Vera Gissing, the British parliament undersecretary for Northern Ireland Lord Dubs, and the director John Schlesinger. Not to be forgotten, while the lives of these children were saved, their families often became victims of the Holocaust.
The hero of the film, Nicholas Winston, still lives in Britain, but his story had nearly been forgotten until his wife discovered some of his documents a decade ago. Mr. Winston wrote in a greeting sent to the festival: "It is right that these events should be remembered, but this remembrance must be used constructively. Mankind must learn to be kind and tolerant and believe and live by the eternal values common to all religions. The fundamental ethics of all religions must be taught and lead the way in to the future."
The Czech film was made in coproduction with Slovakia, Germany and Poland,
and is the Slovak submission for the 1999 Academy Awards.
FRANTISEK
SKALA, Jr. (1956) is one of the most remarkable personalities on the Czech
art scene. A member of the renowned art group "The Stubborn Ones" (Tvrdohlavi),
his direct and self-mocking style endears him to those who see in his work
evidence of proverbial Czech craftsmanship. It would be a mistake, however,
to regard Skala’s creations as no more than high jinks with found objects.
With his magic pieces, he borrows from the mystique of the symbolists and
decadents of the turn of the 20th century. He quotes post-modern contemporary
language, along with intellectual affectations and comic or skeptical Czech
narrow-mindedness. Skala’s inexhaustible inventiveness and his wide-ranging
interests -- in music, architecture, performance art, cartoons & graphics,
sculpture -- exhibit a healthy degree of humor, high and low. In 1991,
Frantisek Skala was among the first to be awarded the prestigious Jindrich
Chalupecky Prize for artists under 35. That same year, his performances
with the mock-secret society "The End of the World is Coming" (Bude konec
sveta) and his musical creations as drummer in the "Small Dance Orchestra"
(Maly tanecni orchestr) were a sensation in the arts community of Prague.
In 1993, he was selected to represent the Czech Republic at the Venice
Biennale, to which he walked on foot, sketching all the way. He has designed
a number of interesting Prague interiors, such as the Akropolis Club &
Cafe. Skala’s work is an irresistible narrative of adventure in a side-real
organic world, where imagination is experience.
Projekt Praha 2000 by Chad Wyatt
Through the centuries, innumerable groups, formations, and generations
of artists have appeared, some leaving their marks in history, some vanishing
into oblivion. Though their unforgettable works may remain with us, we
are often left with only fragmentary information about the artists who
created them. Countering this trend, the exhibit Projekt Praha 2000, by
Washington-based photographer Chad Evans Wyatt, presents portraits of scores
of the remarkable personalities who have shaped the arts in the Czech Republic
during the last decade. Wyatt's photographs map an entire generation active
on the contemporary Czech art scene, creating an indelible historical document.
The exhibition opening takes place on Tuesday, February 22 at 7:30 pm at
the Czech Embassy, and will be on display through August 30, weekdays 9-5
and evenings during Embassy events.
Organized by the Embassy of the Czech Republic in the United States,
the Czech Theater Festival commences in Washington, DC on May 17, 2000,
with an opening evening featuring the U.S. premiere of Opera la Serra,
an original Czech opera composed by Michal Vich and with a libretto by
Jaroslav Dusek. This unusual performance presents beautiful and romantic
music written in Operanto, a ground-breaking language created by the librettist
specifically for use in operas. Ticket sales for this piece have already
commenced and spaces are selling fast -- no surprise, when one considers
that this imaginative opera, commissioned by Prague's Archa Theatre in
1994 with an opening there the same year, became an instant success in
its native city as well.
Opera la Serra is presented by the In Series at Mount Vernon College,
with choreography by Sharon Wyrrick, directed by Joel Lazar. The performances
will take place at the Hand Chapel of George Washington University’s Mount
Vernon Campus, 2100 Foxhall Rd., NW, Washington, DC, 20017. Performances
are scheduled for May 17 at 8pm, May 19 and 20 at 8:30pm. Tickets are $25,
with student discounts available. The Composer and librettist will be present
for the opening performance, which will follow with a reception. For more
information and ticket reservations, please call (202) 625-4655.
The National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library
30 16th Ave. SW
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52404
(319) 362-8500
www.ncsml.org
Feb. 5: Cedar Rapids Symphony Chamber Series, Riveting Ravel. @ 8 p.m. For information call 1-800-369-TUNE.
Feb. 14: Kava a Knihy (Coffee and Books) Reading Discussion Series, 7-9 p.m. Free. Call (319) 362-8500 for book titles.
Feb. 16: Learn at Lunch. Tomas G. Masaryk, Statesman, Scholar, President and Philosopher. Speaker: Bob Stone. Bring a sack lunch and learn about the live and accomplishments of the first president of Czechoslovakia. Noon. Heritage Hall. Free. Call (319) 362-8500 for information.
Feb. 27: Sunday Lifelong Learning Series. 2 p.m. Free. Heritage Hall.
March 13: Kava a Knihy (Coffee and Books) Reading Discussion Series, 7-9 p.m. Free. Call (319) 362-8500 for book titles.
March 15: Learn at Lunch. Bring a sack lunch and learn about Czech & Slovak culture. Noon. Heritage Hall. Free. Call (319) 362-8500 for information.
March 23: Pardubice Orchestra. 7 p.m. Call (319) 362-8500 for ticket information.
March 26: Sunday Lifelong Learning Series. 2 p.m. Free. Heritage Hall.
Czech Center New York
1109 Madison Avenue, NYC, phone: 212-288 0830
Thursday, February 3
Discussion with Jirina Siklova, sociologist and Professor of the Charles
University. The topic is “The Czech Republic: 10 Years after the Velvet
Revolution”. Venue: Czech Center 7:00 pm
Tuesday, February 8
Martin Kasik - American debut of Czech pianist made possible by the
Young Concert Artists organization.
Venue: 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, NYC; 8:00 pm; phone: 212-307
6655
Thursday, February 10
The Ear - Video screening of the film directed by Karel Kachyna (1970).
A deputy minister and his wife have been invited to a government reception.
Realizing that his post is in jeopardy, the husband begins to panic, and
his arguments with the wife expose both a serious crisis in their marriage
and the inescapable nature of their situation. The ubiquitous “ear” listens
and records. Venue: Czech Center; 6:00 and 8:00 pm
Wednesday, February 16
The Sweet Century - Screening of a documentary film by Helena Trestikova
(1998) followed by a discussion with special guests. “The Sweet Century”
is a film about several women who were enjailed from political reasons
in the 1950s in communist Czechoslovakia.
Venue: Czech Center; 7:00 pm
Thursday, February 24
Josef Sudek - The Brumlik Collection - 30 years of writing on photographs:
1946 - 1976. Exhibition of a rare collection of photographs.
Venue: Alan Klotz Photocollect, 22 East 72nd Street, NYC; phone: 212-327
2211
Opening: 6:00 - 8:30 pm. The exhibition will be on view through April
8th; Wed - Sat: 11 am - 6 pm, Tue by appointment only.
Eva Fuka: The Faces of Time
Exhibition of Photographs from Fuka’s “Prague period”, the 1950’s and
1960’s.
Venue: Czech Center; on view through March 31st; Tue, Wed, Fri: 9:00
am - 5:00 pm, Thur: 9:00 - 7:00 pm
Bohdan Holomicek - Photography
Exhibition of Photographs. Venue: Leica Gallery, 670 Broadway (NoHo),
NYC; phone: 212-777 3051; on view through February 26th; Tue - Fri: 11:00
am - 6:00 pm, Sat: noon - 6:00 pm
February 9-June 11
The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light , at Zoellner Arts
Center of Lehigh University, Allentown, PA. For additional information
please call Czech Consulate-Philadelphia at (215) 646-7777
February 10-11
Art, Music and Education as Strategies for Survival symposium and exhibit,
at Moravian College, South Campus, Bethlehem, PA. The opening reception
on February 10, at 5:00 pm will include a talk by the Ambassador Alexandr
Vondra. For additional information please call Czech Consulate-Philadelphia
at (215) 646-7777.
8:00 pm - Concert of Terezin Music by the Hawthorne Quartet/Terezin
Chamber
Music Foundation. For information/registration call at Moravian College:
Jan Ciganick
610.861.1680; Sarah Dunn 610.861.5111; Anne Dutlinger 610.861.1678,
or Hon.Consulate General-Philadelphia at 215.646.7777 e-mail: cz.consul.phl@juno.com
February 27
The University Circle Wind Ensemble, conducted by Gary M. Cieplush,
performs Karel Husa' s Music for Prague, at the Cleveland Institute of
Music, 11021 East Blvd. For information, call (216) 791-5000.
Kocian String Quartet U.S. tour
February 18 Tampa, Fl; 20 Mobile, AL; 21 Birmingham, AL; 22 Americus,
GA; 25 Asheville, NC; 26 Greenville, SC; 27 Columbia, SC; 28 Augusta, GA;29
Macon, GA; March 2 Washington, DC; 4 New York, NY; 5 Brookville, NY.
For time and venue, call (212) 581-8478.
Bohemian Chamber Philmarmonic U.S. tour
February 20 Naples, FL; 21 Titusville, FL; 22 Vero Beach, FL; Fort
Myers, FL; 25 Daytona Beach, FL; 26 Brunswick, GA; 27 Niceville, FL; 28
Panama City, FL; 29Americus, GA; March 1 Columbia, SC; 2 Atlanta, GA; 5
Danville, VA; 6 Elon College, NC; 10 Wabash, IND; 16 Rock Island, IL; 18
Houghton, IL; 19 Green Bay, WI; 20 Rockford, IL; 26 Indianapolis, IN; 27
Tiffin, OH; 28 Detroit, MI; 29 Pittsburgh, PA; 30 Washington, PA; 31 Lancaster,
PA; April 1 Carlisle, PA; 2 Winchester, VA; 4 Williamsport, PA; 5 South
Orange, NJ; 8 Merrick, NY.
For time and venue, call (212) 581-8478.
Alphonse Mucha Exhibition Itinerary
October 16 - January 2, 2000, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA;
January 29 - March 26 2000, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN.