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.