Czech Museum Research Articles

Utilisation of a Balanced Scorecard for Museum Management

The issues involved with the economic aspects of cultural institutions, their economic impact, and the measurement of their performance has basically only been given systematic attention during the past few years. Traditionally performance assessments are primarily connected with entrepreneurial subjects, which is why this assessment has been applied primarily to financial metrics. During the 1990’s, this issue started to be examined from a new perspective. The question arose as to whether it is realistic to restrict performance measurement only to financial indicators. More and more, the opinion began to spread that for measurement to be truly useful, it must also focus on nonfinancial indicators. Gradually this idea started to be promoted, primarily in the cultural and the artistic non-profit areas and also that it is necessary to pay the requisite attention to this topic. Several studies have been made and there have also been other kinds of attempts to measure their performance; the root of the problem is that in Czech museums there is no longer a single agreed-upon method for measuring performance. This study is focused on the use of the Balanced Scorecard method and on its application in the museum world and also on its use as a tool for managing, monitoring and planning.

Sources of Lute- and Guitar Music in the Holdings of the National Museum in Prague

This study gives an overview of lute and guitar tablatures in the holdings of the National Museum (at the Czech Museum of Music and the National Museum Library), and it briefly characterizes them in the form of a catalogue. Since music from the Strahov and Lobkowicz collections, which also involve a rather large set of tablatures, has been returned to its original owners in restitution, the study provides up-to-date information about where this historical material is now kept. It reflects new knowledge and discoveries (lute tablature with the shelf mark KNM Nostic gg 412). The composers presented (e.g. G. P. Foscarini, P. Mutti, N. Vallet, Ch. Mouton, P. I. Jelínek, A. Dix, M. Galilei, J. Dowland, Ch. de Lespine, J. Regnart, S. L. Jacobides, J. Ch. Beyer and many others), living and working in the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, are primarily Italian, French, German, and Czech, and with respect to social classes, they represent practically all of the environments where playing on plucked instruments was cultivated.

Prague Spring in the Drawings of Karel Otáhal

This study reports on interesting holdings in the musical iconography collection of the Czech Museum of Music. Drawings by the sculptor Karel Otáhal (1901–1972) that are related to music and musicians were created for the most part at concerts of the Prague Spring festival between 1946 and 1969. He had already begun making portraits of musicians by the end of his studies, when he created a sculpture of Jan Kubelík. His works are a specific expression of portrait realism and of the ability to capture the typical movement and characteristics of the person depicted. He met in person with musicians, and his drawings bear valuable dedications and commemorative musical quotations by important figures of Czech and foreign music. Unlike the other creators of such drawings, he was merely an enthusiastic observer, but not a caricaturist. Otáhal’s drawings serve as a unique source on the history and dramaturgy of the Prague Spring festival, including its politicization in the 1950s.

Banda lupičů a žhářů

A debate occurred on the location of plaque with the name Jan Hus on the building of the Czech museum at the Czech Landtag in Prague in November 1889. Prince Charles of Schwarzenberg spoke at the meeting and referred to the Hussites as a troop of robbers and arsonists. The debate and its response in the press present political struggle between liberals and Catholics within Czech society in the end of the 19th century. The personality of Jan Hus as an instrument of political argumentation in this struggle.

A Map of the Chinese Imperial Summer Resort Discovered in a Czech Museum

A Map of the Chinese Imperial Summer Resort Discovered in a Czech Museum

NCSML Library Acquires Stanley B. and Zdenka Winters Czech and Central European Book and Periodical Collection

ABSTRACT The National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library (NCSML) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has acquired the Stanley B. and Zdenka Winters book and periodical collection. The article introduces the donors, describes the collection, and acquaints the reader with the NCSML.