Arts | All stories

From Thursday the 23rd to Friday the 31st of this month, the FEBIO film and television company will be celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Febiofest - an international film, television and video festival. Spectators in Prague will be able to visit over ten theatres to view over five hundred productions from about fifty countries. Tereza Brdeckova is one of the organisers of the festival:

In our special arts review, which you may have heard on Radio Prague two days ago, Alena Skodova and I looked at some of the most interesting Czech cultural events that 2002 had to offer. In today's Arts I will be looking at selected events that visitors to Prague will be able to see in the next few months.

The Czech Republic is known abroad as a highly cultural country, and Prague - as the fifth most frequently visited European city - is especially popular for its arts programmes of all genres. On Radio Prague we'll spend the Christmas Day wandering through cultural events of the past year.

Advent is a time when most Christmas exhibitions open throughout the Czech Republic to make people stop in the pre-Christmas hustle and bustle and think about the spiritual values of the season. One such exhibition opened earlier this month at the Ceska sporitelna bank premises in the centre of Prague.

The Vinohrady theatre, or Divadlo na Vinohradech, as it's known here in Prague is currently performing the play Howard Katz. Directed by Jan Novak, it casts Martin Stropnicky - the former Czech ambassador to the Vatican who has returned to acting after a 13 year break - in the leading role. This week, the theatre welcomed a special guest - the author of the play himself, 38-year old British playwright Patrick Marber who visited Prague just to see the Czech performance. I met up with Mr Marber to find out more about Howard Katz and see what he thought

The "Salvage of Cultural Heritage" is a project whose main objective is to seek and preserve significant works by our famous predecessors which are important for our time as well as for future generations. The project includes some of the original scores by great Czech composers from the 19th century, but also the renovation of other cultural sites, such as Charles Bridge in Prague, the Baroque theatre in Cesky Krumlov or the house where Gustav Mahler was born at Kaliste near Humpolec.

The House at the Stone Bell, situated on Prague's Old Town Square, is currently exhibiting works of one of the country's most famous artists - Frantisek Tichy. Although he is mainly known for his paintings of harlequins and clowns, Tichy worked on over three hundred pieces of graphic art and hundreds of drawings and paintings. Until March next year, visitors will have the chance to see some 500 works which include paintings, illustrations, samples of posters, and less-known artistic jewelry and scripts for theatre plays that Tichy found much interest

November 16th marked 'Poetry Day' in the Czech Republic, held on the anniversary of the birth in 1810 of the great Czech Romantic poet, Karel Hynek Macha. This year, it was the 4th time the 'Poetry Day' was held, and it has been expanding with each new year.

If you will be in Prague some time between now and January, there's an exhibition you shouldn't miss. It's called "The Czech Puppet" and opened at the Imperial Stables at Prague Castle two weeks ago. It celebrates the rich Czech puppet-making tradition.

The Ponec theatre in Prague, concentrating mainly on contemporary dance, is one of few cultural institutions that was lucky enough to be spared by the devastating floods in August, despite being located in the Karlin district that suffered most damage. From November 18th to November 29th, it will present the Dance in Holland festival, introducing some of the best and most interesting Dutch dance companies to Czech audiences. Yvona Kreuzmannova is one of the festival's main organisers: