Lada Hubatová-Vacková is an art historian and exhibition curator focusing on the art and design of the 19th and 20th centuries. She studied art history at the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University in Brno, and currently teaches at the Academy of Applied Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. Her research interests include among others the history of applied-arts training and reformist methods in European trans-national contexts. She is the author or co-author of many publications, texts, and exhibition projects (among others, note Husákovo 3+1. Bytová kultura 70. let [Husák’s Three-Room Standard Apartment. Housing Culture of the 1970s], 2007; Tiché revoluce uvnitř ornamentu. Studie z dějin dekorativního umění, 1880–1930 [Silent Revolutions in Ornament. Studies in the History of Applied Arts, 1880–1930], 2011; Věci a slova. Umělecký průmysl, užité umění a design v české teorii a kritice 1870–1970 [Things and Words. Artistic Crafts, Applied Arts and Design in Czech Theory and Criticism], 2014; Václav Cigler. Design, 2015; Budování státu. Reprezentace Československa v umění, architektuře a designu [Building the State. Representation of Czechoslovakia in Art, Architecture, and Design], 2016; První republika [The First Republic] 2018; Vila Jenny a Josefa Winternitzových. Adolf Loos a Karel Lhota, 1931–1932 [The Villa of Jenny and Josef Winternitz. Adolf Loos and Karel Lhota], 2020; Divadlo ulice. Reklama a aranžérství výkladních skříní v kontextu modernismu, 1918–1938 [The Theatre of the Street. Advertising and Window Display within the Context of Modernism,1918–1938], 2021). Her publication Silent Revolutions in Ornament, examining the experimental character of the decorative arts between 1880 and 1930, was nominated for the F. X. Šalda Prize, while the exhibition of the same name received the special Gloria Musaealis Prize and the award “Umělec má cenu” (The Artist Is Valuable) for young creators. The permanent exhibition “The First Republic 1918–1938” at the National Gallery in Prague, where she collaborated with Anna Pravdová and Hana Rousová, was awarded by the Czech Committee of ICOM’s with the Gloria Musaealis Prize. She has worked for several years on the history and theory of artistic schooling, e.g., as co-editor of the book Lada Hubatová-Vacková – Martina Pachmanová – Jitka Ressová (eds.), Zlínská umprumka (1959–2011). Od průmyslového výtvarnictví po design [The Zlín Academy. From Industrial Art to Design] Praha 2013, along with contributions to the survey of the Bratislava School of Artistic Crafts, where many of its progressive instructors left after 1939 to the Brno institution of the same name (Klára Prešnajderová – Simona Bérešová – Sonia de Puineuf (eds.), Škola umeleckých remesiel,1928–1939, Bratislava 2022). She is part of an international research team investigating both the local qualities and the trans-national history of applied-arts schooling. As of 2023, she is chief researcher in the grant project NAKI III “Sites of Creativity. Arts and Crafts Education: Constructing Identites, Rescuing Heritage, Designing the Future”.
