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Festival of Czech films starts in London. Chalupecky Society presents annual award. Czech Republic to finance maintenance of Komensky Museum in Naarden.

This week was marked by two major events in pop-music. On Tuesday a number of the Czech Republic's popular rock bands took part in a concert held in Prague called "S komunisty se nemluvi", or "You Shouldn't Talk to Communists". Precisely fourteen years after the fall of the communist regime in this country, the latest polls suggest an increase in the popularity of the Communist Party, making it now the country's second most popular political party.

Music and youth social work unite at the 10th anniversary of a civic organization called Proxima Sociale. The event took place at a vibrant Prague night club called Palac Akropolis last Friday. Proxima Sociale works in two large districts in Prague and offers various resources to youth, such as housing and psychological support, and they are also very active in recruiting possible candidates for these services on the street. But yes this is an arts report. The event presented four young Czech bands ranging from jazz melodies, hardcore and reggae

This week one of the Czech Republic's most respected singer-songwriters, Jaromir Nohavica, released his first album in almost three and a half years. Entitled "Babylon", the new Nohavica album features a wide variety of styles, including several trademark acoustic songs, such as the second track "Marenka", which is dedicated to the late Karel Kryl, perhaps the greatest single influence on Nohavica's music.

Welcome to this week's Arts. In today's edition: Prague pays its debt to the unforgettable duo of Czech comedians Jan Werich and Jiri Voskovec, as a proper gravestone has been raised at last at the Olsanske cemetery in Prague above their graves. More on that a little later on, but first we start with the arts news.

Every year, Prague attracts thousands of visitors with its historical buildings, sculptures and monuments of ten centuries. But it is not only its architecture and the narrow romantic cobblestone streets that leave a mark; its enchanting, magical atmosphere is unforgettable and makes the city's place in Europe truly unique. Prague has inspired Kafka, Klima, Capek and more recently Vaclav Havel. The city undoubtedly sparks the imagination and numerous young writers from all over the world flock to Prague in the hope of getting a piece of that pie of inspiration...

In this week's Arts, Dita Asiedu visits an exhibition on Czechs and Slovaks in exile during the twentieth century, invites you to a jazz marathon in Hradec Kralove, and looks at the Week of Czech Culture in Malta.

From September 25 to October 5, Prague hosted the Week of Czechs Living Abroad - a large event held every two years, bringing together Czechs living abroad to talk about their relations with the Czech Republic today. This year saw representatives of organisations and societies from over thirty-five countries flock to the Czech capital. According to foreign ministry estimates, there are currently some 2.5 million people living abroad around the world, who claim their Czech origin. Out of these about 1.7 million live in the United States. The ministry's

Czech painter Miroslav Houst turned fifty this year. An exhibition of his work opened on Thursday at the Miro Art Gallery in Prague under the motto "Respect for Tradition". The reason - Miroslav Houst is a painter of realism, a style which is sometimes looked down upon by supporters of avant-garde art. The artistic work of the Czech Academy of Arts graduate Miroslav Houst is a continuation of the centuries-old and ongoing classical pictorial tradition.

Welcome to the Arts. This year in June we spoke with Czech architects Martin Roubik and Regina Loukotova whose project for the Grand Egyptian Museum to be built in Giza won a High Honourable Mention in an architectural competition commissioned by the Egyptian government. While Egyptian authorities are still deciding which of the winning projects to chose, the National Gallery in Prague has put up an exhibition of almost two dozen Czech and Slovak projects which entered the competition, together with almost 3,000 other projects from more than 100