Educational programmes for grades 6–9

What is music? Does it express something? How does it affect us?
In his painting Jazz, artist Zdeněk Kirchner managed to depict subtle and energetic jazz music. This programme featuring music, movement and art activities introduces children to the close relationship between music and art and how they can influence one another.

How many different kinds of materials can be used to make art? What is friendship, and who is an angel for us?
Sculptor Věra Janoušková’s quietly standing sculpture An Angel for Vitík is an homage to a good friend of her’s. Janoušková gave trash from the junk yard new form and a chance at a second life. In this programme, students let themselves be inspired by her art to create their own angel using unusual materials.

Do we notice the people around us? Are we capable of recognising when they are happy or sad? What is charity? And what is the soul?
The artist Pavel Brázda explored the human soul and created colourful portraits of people. As we explore his painting Mrs. Charity, we will look for ordinary situations, identify big and small experiences, try to estimate interpersonal relationship and talk about colours.

Can we communicate without words? Without writing? Without telephones? What might we use to replace usual means of communication?
In her work, Adriena Šimotová depicts people and the human body using distinctive techniques. In this programme, students explore everyday gestures and moments while experimenting with how to communicate without words.

Who are the people that Josef Čapek captured in his paintings? Why did he paint them? Why do the figures look like they have been composed from geometric shapes?
In this programme, we will work with Čapek’s Organ Grinder to introduce students to the world of geometric shapes and people who have been less fortunate in life than others.

How do our activities affect events on the other side of the world? What influence do they have on people from different cultures? What can we learn from them?
Czech painter Otto Placht lives with a tribe in the Amazon jungle. In his work, he combines native and modern artistic traditions. We will work with his painting Grass to enter into the depths of the jungle while creating our own depiction of the rich diversity we stand to lose if we do not take proper care of our planet.

Light and darkness always come at a specific time. How does light cut through the darkness? How can it be depicted?
Participants will attempt to spread light from a point source. Working with Luděk Filipský’s Painting and with their own artistic creations, they learn that light is not just an object of study in the field of physics, but that it can possess deep spiritual meaning.

How are we influenced by chance or by a predetermined order? What are structure and line?
In his paintings, Zdeněk Sýkora moved from realistic images to geometric abstraction while applying mathematical principle to his art. Participants will attempt to create a painting using an unusual random-order method.

What are prejudices? Where do they come from? How do they affect us? What kinds of prejudices existed under communism in the Czech Republic? What might have determined them?
Participants will learn about the work of Jaroslav Vožniak as they become part of a Dada performance in the spirit of the Šmidrové art group, of which Vožniak was a member. Throughout his artistic career, Vožniak’s work was characterized by the group’s absurd wildness, which among other things reflected the irrational and atmosphere of surveillance of Czechoslovakia’s social and political scene at the time.

What is an ordinary stone?
In his art, Jiří John often depicted the minerals hidden beneath the surface of the earth. He discovered the understated beauty all around us, which is at first glance invisible. John’s typical depiction of various layers and his use of subtle lines shows us what might lie hidden beneath the surface – in the natural objects around us and in ourselves.

What comes to mind when we say the word ‘square’? What can create a square? How difficult or easy can it be to find a square?
Jan Kubíček’s art grows from a passion for this basic, perfect shape and a simple combination of black, white and blue. By working with a square, participants will discover an unusual combination of mathematics and art.

It is fascinating how our head works. After all, the rest of our body couldn’t function without it. What things is it capable of remembering? What can it learn? What can it imagine? And what happens if these and other skills and abilities are combined with the remarkable world of art?
We will work with Theodor Pištěk’s ability to give objects new meanings and to create new stories to introduce participants to the world inside their heads and in the heads of other people.

What can one flap of a butterfly wing cause to happen? Can it affect things on the other side of the world?
Working with the art of Svatopluk Klimeš, participants will explore the question of climate change. Fragile, crumpled paper helps them approach the eternally repeating process of birth and death.

What can we learn from the monuments that we encounter on our city streets?
Ladislav Šaloun is best known for his monument to Jan Hus on Prague’s Old Town Square. By looking at the wide range of Šaloun’s works in the GASK collections, students will learn about art in the public space, try to interpret some of his sculptures, put themselves in the shoes of historical figures and express all this through their own sculptures.

Who is the mysterious Prague pedestrian? What ideas pass through his mind? What questions is he seeking to answer?
František Hudeček’s The Prague Pedestrian introduces students to the avant-garde and to art’s ties to literature, architecture, music, theatre, science and technology. Just like artists at the time, they can express their thoughts, ideas and imagination.

What is hidden inside a forgotten suitcase? Whose suitcase was it and into what era has it taken us? What does the lion symbolise? And the horse?
Participants will learn about the life of Emil Filla and experience his ups and downs. They will try to interpret his work and, through their own art, reshape it to give the depicted historical events a positive expression. What direction might history have taken and where would we be today?

How can a complex history be projected in a simple, basic form? Can the chosen material be a bearer of feelings? Can a non-specific sculptural form depict a specific event?
Participants will work together to identify the stories that may be embodied in the work of Olbram Zoubek as they explore his sculpture Shot to Death and attempt to find their own stories together.

How does Jan Palach’s act affect today’s generation of young people? Can it even be understood by contemporary society? How did Jan Palach feel as he prepared to take his radical step? How did society view him at the time?
With a view to the work of Jiří Sozanský, participants will try to answer these and other questions as they learn about the year 1969 and the events surrounding the death of Jan Palach. The goal of this programme is to encourage a reflection on the significance of historical events for society today.

What states of mind do we experience? Can they be expressed through more than words or facial expressions, but also through movement?
The artist Rudolf Němec tried to answer these questions in his work, creating actionist pieces that responded to the current state of his own mind. Participants will explore the meaning of Němec’s art and engage in their own artistic activities.

How did the events of 1989 change the lives of Czech artists? How did they affect their work? What exactly is resignation? How can it be expressed in a person? And in society at large?
Students explore the labyrinth of events stretching from 1968 to 1989 and learn how they affected the life of painter Květa Válová. Through her works and their own creative activities, they come to realise how every person can influence their path through life and how an active approach by individuals and their collaborative effort can lead to victory for all of society.

Is money evil? Are people good only when there is no money involved? What was the financial crisis of the 1990s in the Czech Republic?
In his cycle The Great Financial Scandal, Vladimír Merta used the encaustic technique, American cents and Czechoslovak hellers to produce a unique critical reflection of capitalism and the new post-1989 social order. But time goes on, and so we will reflect on the bitterness that the collapse of banks left in our society and look at how things are changing among the youngest generation.

Who were and who are the Jesuits? What was the purpose of the Jesuit College?
The Jesuits are known for their relationship to education and their positive approach to interdisciplinary learning. Their missionary activities also had an important influence on the places where they were active. What would it have been like for them to find themselves in a new and unexplored country? Participants will learn about the Jesuit order, the Jesuits’ missionary journeys and their mission, which was focused primarily on education.

Life is short, art endures. This sentence has been eternalised in the stuccowork of the Jesuit College. The word ‘art’ is often understood only to refer to fine art and music, but we should not forget about theatre and literature. In fact, the Jesuits were inclined to use elements of drama in their education. Art should be perceived with all the senses, since everything relates to everything else. Participants will familiarise themselves with the most important elements of Baroque art such as chiaroscuro, optical illusions, movement, order, symmetry, dynamics and emotions.

But what if… The Jesuits believed in having a multidisciplinary foundation and were highly educated. Their strong faith in God and in science made them well-rounded individuals. One field in which they excelled was pharmacy. They applied their knowledge not only within their order but also provided the residents of Kutná Hora with medicines created by experienced Jesuit apothecaries. On their missions, they encountered many new species of plants that they studied and recorded in their herbaria. What is medicine and where does it come from? Participants will become Jesuit pharmacists and come up with medical treatments.