The first annual nationwide event to promote children's art schools ZUŠ OPEN will be held in public spaces across the country on 30 May 2017. All art schools may participate in the event. The event is a major project of the Magdalena Kožená Endowment Fund, the main mission of which is to promote art education in the Czech Republic.
The system of children's art education in the Czech Republic is absolutely unique and is uncontested internationally. During the ZUŠ OPEN, individual children's art schools will have the opportunity to publicly present the results of the work of their students in all disciplines, ranging from music and dance to art, literature and drama. Children's art schools may sign up for the event by 1 November 2016 at: www.zusopen.cz. The ZUŠ OPEN Project is organised in cooperation with the Association of Children's Art Schools of the Czech Republic. The actual event will take place on 30 May 2017. The founder and patron of the Endowment Fund is the opera singer Magdalena Kožená, the co-patron is the Chief Executive Officer of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra David Mareček.
In May of next year, squares, streets, cultural centres and other public places will sound with music and signing, there will be dance and theatre performances and countless art exhibitions. The main protagonists of the ZUŠ OPEN Project will be the pupils themselves, students and entire ensembles of children's art schools who will prepare a rich programme for the general public under the guidance of their teachers.
488 children's art schools with 247,000 students operate in the Czech Republic. Currently, there are four basic disciplines offered here – music, dance, art, literature and drama. In the years 1961-1990, they were called folk art schools. Schools called "liduška" and "zuška" are such a traditional part of our cultural identity that they are seen now and were seen in the past by the society as a matter of course. Yet, their significance is questioned from time to time. "Children's art schools form the roots of our culture, our love for the arts. On a global scale, they are a completely unique education system that must be pampered, developed and supported," says Brno native Magdalena Kožená, a promoter of Czech culture abroad and the mother of three children, who also has a clear view of Czech art schools thanks to the international comparison. She began her artistic career at the Vranovská Children's Art School in Husovice, Brno.
