Schools of the Applied Arts between 1870 and 1945: Personalities, Teaching Methods, Creative Practice

This project (a digital exhibition and printed scholarly catalogue) presents the history of schooling in the applied arts in the historic Czech lands through a historical survey, thematic chapters, and individual case studies. The chosen period starts with the year 1870, when the institution of applied-arts schools (Kunstgewerbeschule System) was established at the instigation of the Austrian Ministry of Religion and Education, continues with their transformation in independent Czechoslovakia during the First Republic and partially during the period of German occupation up until 1945. Attention will focus on the relations between the urban centres (Vienna, Prague) and peripheral regions, the relations between German- and Czech-language education, gender aspects of artistic education, as well as the imperial requirements of Austrian applied arts. Similarly, the project will not ignore the democratic-oriented reform tendencies of education in the First Republic, methods of teaching drawing or mapping, or an analysis of collections of pattern-books and other instruction manuals. No less, it will address the educational efforts of individual instructors active at specific institutions connected with training in applied-arts disciplines, specific links between education and given regions and their traditions, local industrial manufacturing and home-made folk production (Hausindustrie) as well as domestic and international school exhibitions. The digital exhibition and book will contain a significant quantity of documentary illustrations from the archives of schools and museum collections. The project will be realised in 2027.

Lada Hubatová-Vacková, Martina Pachmanová

Lada Hubatová-Vacková, Martina Pachmanová, Kateřina Kuthanová, Tomáš Zapletal

Veronika Soukupová, Anna Sedláček Roubalová, Lucia Zelenáková