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The Plastic People of the Universe are back with a new album entitled Maska za maskou [The Mask behind the Mask], their first release in nearly a decade, and the first written since the death of their previous lead songwriter Milan “Mejla” Hlavsa. The group are absolute legends of the Czech rock underground, and it was their imprisonment by the communist authorities which famously sparked the Charter 77 protest movement. But while they may now feature in modern history books, the Plastic People always insisted they just wanted to be allowed to

Hunt Kastner Artworks in Prague 7 is a private gallery owned and run by Camille Hunt, who is Canadian, and Katherine Kastner, who is from the US though her mother is Czech. The two represent 10 Czech artists, among them Eva Koťátková, Josef Bolf and Daniel Pitín. This week I stopped by to talk to the owners about their work, both curating shows and helping their artists find buyers overseas. I first asked Hunt what had led them to open the gallery in the first place.

Often thought of as a historical period in which art was destroyed rather than created, the Reformation is rarely examined in terms of the artwork it produced. An exhibition that will open at the Prague Castle this Friday takes a look at Bohemian art from that very period.

"Zoufalci" started out as a thesis film. It was then picked up for production by Czech Television and is currently showing in movie theaters across the Czech Republic. I talked to the film's director, Jitka Rudolfová, who just finished her studies at Prague's Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU), about the unexpected success of her film.

The list of those who have stayed at the Chelsea Hotel in the New York district of the same name reads like a kind of Who’s Who of 20th century western culture: Dylan Thomas, Bob Dylan, Tennessee Williams, William Burroughs, Sid Vicious, Arthur Miller, Gore Vidal, Jack Kerouac, Brendan Behan, Miloš Forman, Robert Crumb. I could go on for a lot, lot longer.

Exactly 20 years ago, during the Velvet Revolution, the country was flooded with posters, both home-produced and professionally printed, calling for change. They bore slogans like Free Elections, Teacher You Don’t Have to Lie to Us Anymore, and Havel to the Castle. Now many of those posters have been gathered in a fascinating new book.

Za Svobodu! – called Be Free! in English – is the title of an exhibition the Czech National Museum opened on Tuesday’s anniversary of the start of the Velvet Revolution. It is located in the institution’s new building, the former home of Czechoslovakia’s Federal Assembly, and is co-curated by Lucie Swierczeková.

Writers were at the forefront of the Velvet Revolution. But when the dust settled on the political changes they found a fast changing publishing revolution underway that left some of them sidelined. We look at the changes in the publishing and literary world over the last two decades.

A play based on the short but stormy love affair between the Third Reich’s infamous propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and a young Czech film star has been causing quite a stir locally. Goebbels-Baarová has sparked controversy ― partly because of its unforgiving treatment of actress Lída Baarová and its message aimed at today’s Czechs. We investigate the play’s background and talk with its joint author and director.

In this week’s Arts: a new documentary offers an overview of the great Czech film director Miloš Forman, and the 1960s rock group Blue Effect have just brought out a box set of their collected albums.