REGION

Priorities of Ostrava:

Taking Care of Culture and Senior Citizens

Ing. Zbyněk Pražák, Ph.D. is one of the designers of post-1989 Ostrava. He has been involved in local

culture and social issues for many years. He stood at the origins of numerous projects with distinct

architectural features which enhance the style of our city, such as the Ostrava Puppet Theatre.

He is also very agile in improving the system of care for seniors and the development of social facilities.

Mr Pražák, a few years ago, Ostrava competed to win

the title of European City of Culture. What are the

current qualities of culture in Ostrava and what is the

vision for the city?

Ostrava is a city with a great range of excellent quality

culture taken as a standard, which is why the city entered

the contest for the European City of Culture. There are

a huge number of cultural institutions such as theatres,

philharmonic orchestras, galleries, libraries, museums as

well as many events and genres of culture.

Ostrava is also the centre of many projects in culture

which indivisibly belong to the city’s profile. Dozens

of music and drama festivals are best represented

by Mezinárodní hudební festival Leoše Janáčka (the Leoš

Janáček International Music Festival), Svatováclavský

hudební festival (St. Wenceslas Music Festival), Colours

of Ostrava, Beats for Love, Folklor bez hranic (Folk Music

sans Borders), Letní shakespearovské slavnosti Ostrava

(Ostrava Summer Shakespearean Festival), Cirkulum,

and many others.

The city council invests about 10% of its budget in culture.

In the past decade, many projects have been completed,

such as the renovation of Kulturní dům Akord (Akord

House of Culture), the extension to the Puppet Theatre,

the revitalization of the exhibition halls of the Museum

of Ostrava, and the recent renovation of George Myron

Theatre. Another investment has just begun, and that

is the renovation of the historical buildings of the City

Slaughterhouse, which is to become home to the new

gallery of contemporary arts, Plato.

For 2020, we have increased financing to pay for

the planned construction of a new concert hall, now

valued at almost 250 million CZK. The hall will be built

on a design by a US studio, Steven Holl Architects, in

close collaboration with Czech architects. Ostrava will

thus have one of the most modern concert halls in

Europe with first-class acoustics.

contains even the most important multicultural festivals

with long histories, such as Colours of Ostrava, Beats for

Love, Cirkulum, Ostrava v plamenech (Ostrava on Fire)

or Folklor bez hranic (Folk Music sans Borders). Organizers

of these festivals, typically prepared a long time ahead, are

in a difficult situation. We understand these events have

a European reputation, therefore we are looking for ways

to help them get over the most critical time and to support

the continuity of these festivals in the future.

Culture experienced a shock during the COVID crisis,

not only in Ostrava. The City Council is the founder and

promoter of many organizations and events in culture.

How do you intend to revive cultural programmes?

Ostrava set up a series of measures to help culture get

over the difficult time of the COVID-19 pandemic. There

was a special programme supporting organizations

operating in culture, education, sports and non-profit

activities. The council has also approved support to local

entrepreneurs.

Many events promoted by the city have shifted towards

autumn, but I am very sorry to say that this year, some

will not happen at all. The list of cancelled events

The current crisis will seriously affect the economy

of the city. Will it influence your visions of senior care,

too?

The situation is not easy; we are missing a great deal of

income, and due to extraordinary expenses, we will have

to apply some economic measures. Yet I believe that our

principal targets in social spheres will not be affected.

Currently, Ostrava has a capacity of about 2,130 beds

in senior homes, 1,611 of these in city facilities. The

remaining capacity is non-state and private institutions.

Still, this is not enough to cover the demand, therefore

we are preparing projects intended to increase the

capacities of residential social services for seniors,

64 ǀ POSITIV 2/2020

The high level of a society can easily be told by how

it treats its elderly citizens. Is Ostrava a cultural city

in this view?

The culture of a society is not expressed only in the scale

of theatre and music performances or the number of

museums. It consists of other aspects of at least the same

significance: the environment we live in, our homes,

the quality of infrastructure, and much more. Last but

not least, it matters how we treat one another, the care

we pay to citizens that depend on help from others,

including seniors.

We realize this is our responsibility in Ostrava, therefore,

as a long-term policy, we promote an active approach.

Within the Senior Council, there are regular meetings

with representatives of organizations for seniors. Each

city quarter runs a Senior Club, all twelve city districts

provide so-called Senior Taxis, which is transport with

lower fares. In cooperation with the city police, we

provide seniors with “safety buttons” to quick-dial first

responders in need, organize lectures on safety in the real

world and on the Internet. They may study various fields

at the Universities of the Third Age. Seniors also take part

in specialized programmes and courses organized by the

Museum of Ostrava and the City Library of Ostrava. We

promote active seniors through annual awards of the

Senior of the Year and Senior Club, and we also sponsor

senior organizations.