Exhibition Opening
By the Head and by the Hands. The School of Arts and Crafts in Brno (1924–2024)

We cordially invite you to the ceremonial opening of the exhibition Head and Hands: The School of Arts and Crafts in Brno (1924–2024), which will take place on Tuesday, October 21, at 6:00 PM at the House of Art on Malinovského Square. As part of the accompanying program, Bára Zmeková, an acclaimed composer, pianist, and singer with a distinctive style, will perform. Her songs, featuring original Czech lyrics, move gracefully between jazz, folk, classical music, and subtle electronics.

PROGRAM
(The program will be specified later)

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

How did modern art and design emerge in Brno? What were the methods of arts and crafts education? And how did the former School of Arts and Crafts evolve into today’s Secondary School of Art and Design and Higher Vocational School Brno? The exhibition traces the century-long story of a Central European institution where local folk traditions met experimental artistic avant-garde, obedience to the political establishment coexisted with bold free-thinking, and traditional craftsmanship merged with new media. In short, it presents the outcome of a team research project, which is published in greater detail in the book of the same title.

The exhibition is divided into six chronological sections, framed by historical milestones that often had a decisive impact on the school’s activities. From another perspective, the exhibition can be seen as a partial account of the Brno art scene through the prism of a single secondary art school.

The title Head and Hands refers to the distinctiveness of artistic practice and education. More specifically, it recalls certain pedagogical methods highlighted in the exhibition. On a broader level, it represents an attempt to capture changing ideas about the social significance of art and, ultimately, about how someone becomes an artist.

The School of Arts and Crafts (abbreviated as ŠUŘ), founded in 1924 by the Chamber of Commerce and Trade in Brno, was established as a distinctly modern alternative to the predominantly German-language institutions of a similar type that had existed in Moravia since the late 19th century. It also aimed to stand apart from Prague’s Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design (UMPRUM) and comparable schools in Austria and Germany. During both the First Republic and the 1940s under the Protectorate, the faculty at ŠUŘ intentionally focused on cultivating a modern, locally rooted cultural identity—fostering artistic production that would bridge international modernism with Moravian regional traditions.

Over the years, ŠUŘ has been home to many prominent educators, including Emanuel Hrbek, Josef Vydra, Petr Dillinger, Božena Rothmayerová-Horneková, Viktor Oppenheimer, Jaroslav Král, Karel Langer, Jan Lichtág, František Kalivoda, Zdeněk Rossmann, Antonín Jero, František Malý, Josef Vydra, Bohdan Lacina, Josef A. Šálek, Jindřich Svoboda, Karel Otto Hrubý, Marie Filippovová, Dalibor and Ivan Chatrný, Pavel Dias, Vladimír Židlický, Pavel Dvorský, Jan Rajlich, Emanuel Ranný, and Petr Veselý. The school also counts many well-known former students among its alumni, such as František Povolný, Bohumír Matal, Ester Krumbachová, Teodor Rotrekl, Inez Tuschnerová, Jiří Pelcl, Josef Daněk, Blahoslav Rozbořil, Václav Jirásek, Kateřina Šedá, Barbora Klímová, and many others. Today, the former ŠUŘ is officially known as the Secondary School of Art and Design, which also includes the Higher Vocational School of Brno.

The exhibition marking the school’s centenary builds on the results of art-historical research conducted by the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (UMPRUM) in collaboration with invited experts in the field. It focuses on exploring newly uncovered or lesser-known aspects of the school’s history and present, drawing from the preserved works of its notable teachers and graduates as well as from ŠUŘ’s archival collections. These sources, which go beyond the grand narratives of art history, also shed light on the everyday workings of the school and its teaching methods—including textbooks, instructional aids, and meeting notes. Through detailed thematic digressions within their historical context, the exhibition opens up smaller, focused studies that contribute to a more nuanced and complete picture of the institution.

The research was partially funded by the Czech Ministry of Culture through the NAKI III program (Support for Applied Research in National and Cultural Identity), as part of the project Sites of Creativity: Arts and Crafts Education—Constructing Identity, Preserving the Past, Designing the Future (DH23P03OVV061). The grant recipient is the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague: mistatvorivosti.umprum.cz.

The main media partner of the exhibition is Czech Television.
The exhibition is held under the auspices of the Governor of the South Moravian Region Jan Grolich and the Mayor of the City of Brno Markéta Vaňková.