TM

Cultural Landmark Management

Director's Corporate Policy + Mission Statement:

Program Goals and Objectives, concerning the 'long forgotten' and "Lost 1903 Prague Cultural Center" ...

< The European Music Centre™ / The Prague Music Centre™

The European Music Center™ / The Prague Music Center™ >

Concerning the European Music Centre™ / Prague Music Centre™ property and facility, its centre-city, historically sensitive, private sector renewal, re-development and future operations, in the public interest:

1. We are honored to have the opportunity to have found and to have the distinct privilege to purchase and 'rescue' this important -but long forgotten- historic cultural facility in the centre of Prague - after searching for it for many, many years, having known of its existence for 47+ years, and having faced the obvious responsibility to be absolutely certain, historically, that this particular, and obviously long forgotten property, is, indeed, what we were searching to find.
   
2. We are especially grateful to the dedicated, career-professional experts at The Czech Ministry of Culture and The Czech Institute of National Monuments, as well as to interested colleagues in City of Prague government, and notably, also, to renowned expert local Czech architects for assisting us in confirming and helping us to expand upon our own private research. Without their interest, and without their patient and continually 'supportive' professional knowledge, expert opinions, and notably for their 'research tips' and suggestions on proper and 'Best Practices' restoration approaches to 'saving' this largely Czech Art Nouveau facility [and although originally privately constructed], this philanthropic restoration for the surrounding community would not be possible, at all.
   
3. In our recognition of the obligations we must embrace which are are connected with saving, conserving, restoring and appropriately renewing this 'lost' and what was historically the only centre-city Prague Cultural Centre™, (the only such facility ever built near to Wenceslas Square), and notably after some 7 decades of its being 'closed down and forgotten' [basically from the time of the Nazi takeover of Czechoslovakia at the start of World War II], we openly acknowledge and accept the responsibility for faithfully restoring and administering what is, ultimately a special and continuing 21st Century 'community responsibility' that, frankly, 'needs to be done' "in the public interest."  It is sine qua non that such philanthropic and very 'public' grand projects such as this Prague Cultural Centre  - Prague Music Centre™ 'renewal and re-discovery,' are vastly different from normal 'commercial activities,' and the commensurate and, hence, required continuing standards of 'Best Practices' performance are obviously dramatically higher, in every respect.
4. For us and our international expert team, it is clear that the results of this historic restoration and renewal must be both of -Best Practices- "museum quality" and "community oriented" - it being clearly 'in the public interest,' even though the facility was always private from the time of its construction and opening well over 100 years ago (it was started in 1900, and opened in 1903). The facility will continue to be private, and will be held and tastefully modernized in a classic "managed trust" type historic reconstruction and operations status as a "mixed use," -self financing-, and 'publicly accessible' cultural facility - essentially as it was from 1903 to World War II, when the Nazi occupation authorities forced it to be 'permanently closed.' The property was ultimately confiscated by the state, during socialism, and was partially used for other purposes -including the production of film and television music, and otherwise remained largely 'closed and forgotten.' In its then new role, it had been assigned to a "state company." Later, it was provisionally privatized in the 1990s, with title being transferred at that time to that same former state company's -also privatized- successor, that held it for the latter part of the 20th Century. We are acquiring it from that successor company for the purposes of renewing and reopening what, experts agree, was the one and only cultural center ever built around Wenceslas Square, in its renewed role as the obvious Prague Cultural Centre™, or Prague Music Centre™ notably given the fact that no such other facility exists, nor has ever been constructed in the past 110 years. Hence, the once happy history, but often sad history, of the cultural centre 'speaks for itself.'
   
5. We also recognize that we must also seriously invest -over many years- in repairing and restoring what experts have confirmed to have been inappropriate -unauthorized- and probably illegal modifications and damage to this historic Art Nouveau and Classicism facility: often significant and obviously 'very wrong' changes that were done by the former 'state company' that had responsibility for the property during socialism and communism - after World War II: restoring it carefully, so as to bring it back to as much of its former architectural and 'Prague Art Nouveau' decorative elegance as possible. These unfortunate damages must be repaired, and they will be repaired. Although these 'mindless' damages were so typical of the period of socialism, we now embark upon what will be a long and continuing historical research and restoration investment responsibility that we will have in the facility, so as to rediscover and restore otherwise 'lost' or hidden aspects of this wonderful and representative period piece of privately financed and modest, yet functional, Czech Art Nouveau and Classicism architecture, which were so badly damaged during the decades and abuses of socialism.
   
6. We believe firmly that some philanthropic projects, such as this one, and which must be done "in the public interest," are most appropriately done slowly and carefully by the private sector -in patient consultation with the finest experts in government, in respected Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and among renowned experts in the private sector, of course.
   
7. We believe strongly that such philanthropic projects must ultimately finance themselves, over the long run, and that the -Best Practices- 'standards of quality' that must be achieved in the results of the historic reconstruction related to such 'grand projects,' must be the same as if they were done by the public sector.
8. Finally, in closing, we particularly wish to remember our also 'long lost' older friend and mentor, the visionary reformer Alexandre Dubček, (November 27, 1921 - November 7, 1992) who told me precisely where to find this 'lost Prague cultural center' in the spring of 1990, after the "Velvet Revolution" - which followed the "Prague Spring" of 1968 that he had courageously initiated and led against the brutality of Soviet oppression in Czechoslovakia. Both in Washington together with Rita Klimova (also, sadly, 'gone') then Ambassador to the US, and later during the first official mission of the then new TU-154M presidential aircraft (as Rita had said - "originally ordered by the communists, but delivered 'late' and never flown" before the Velvet Revolution), when Vaclav Havel was 1st President of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic (ČSFR), we discussed this 'lost Prague cultural center project.'  In flying 'back' from Andrews Air Force Base, Washington, D.C. - high over the Atlantic Ocean en route to Bratislava and then Prague, overnight and the next day in brilliant, sunny weather, we concluded that afternoon, that obviously, it was not possible to buy the property at that time, and we were not yet 100% certain that this was, indeed, the property we were seeking to find. Almost apologetically, he added, on that 2nd leg of the flight - back from Bratislava, when the plane was basically empty and we were alone to talk quietly, at length, "Of course, I did not grow up in Prague; I'm Slovak."  None the less, a few days later, during lunch, I briefly excused myself from the President's Office in the 'Castle' (Kancelar presidenta republiky, KPR) and I followed his perfect and very graphic directions, finding the forgotten Prague cultural center, literally instantly. Upon entering the musty and partially disused building, in the dim light of a single bare bulb high in the rotunda, I explored further, finding the Art Nouveau grand staircase, and from the half open garden doors leading outside, the former 'music restaurant +kavarna +private, restaurant garden' with trees and ivy, and looked up at the covered windows of the Great Hall - once a busy dance hall. Then I knew that this was "it" from big photos I had seen, decades before, in a book on European modern architecture published in the 1930's, that my grandmother had had in New York, and had bought when it was "new," and her own family summer holiday photos from Prague in the 1920s. Back in the President's Office in Prague Castle, later, this tidbit of 'news' brought out Dubček's famous and rare, fleeting broad smile of real happiness, and the prescient comment "That's wonderful, but it's not for us, today." - as we were all preoccupied with how to get things stabilized politically, against the communists, for the 1st free elections in Czechoslovakia in decades and following the Velvet Revolution - and we all struggled to discover how to somehow prevent the communists from stealing the election by their predictable attempt to stuff the ballot boxes.  Also being faced were a multitude of other real, though lesser, but important problems, like having no more fax paper in KPR (when everyone was grateful that "the phones still work" in the President's Office) 'in the times before email+Internet,' as tough ethical and policy problems had to be discussed and solved regarding external -nationwide shortages- of things like newsprint for national newspapers, which were also thorny problems - i.e., 'which publications should have the paper,' or were there any proper and ethical restrictions in a political environment that frankly only appeared to be really free - from the outside Czechoslovakia, yet where freedom 'hung on' only by fine threads, so to speak?  Remembering today, in 2009, his guidance on the flight (and later encouragement) to carry on with rescuing the lost cultural center "somehow, someday," he said, as a long term project to do "after things will be fixed" in Czechoslovakia, he presciently added that "It will take a long time to get it, and it won't be easy," as we were approaching Prague, that sunny spring afternoon.  You could feel in his voice and words that he truly planned to help make it happen and he certainly planned to be 'there' at the re-opening of a cultural center he knew had existed long ago - even though he had been too young and too far away to have actually been there before World War II:  a once popular downtown Prague cultural center that had so successfully showcased music, the arts, science, philosophy and the letters in a humble way, for all Czechs and Slovaks, until the tyranny of the Nazi regime forced it to be closed, now some 70 years ago.  Therefore, sadly, we note that one older friend, guide, mentor, personal sponsor and enthusiastic quiet supporter - the kind of fun and fascinating expert older person you never had enough time with, but who was like a favorite professor - who trusted and helped you, who vouched for you, personally, and was always fun to talk with, and with whom you would have always loved to take 'more' seminar classes on 'ethics and fairness in government' - or something similar, so to speak, but never had the chance to do so, Alexandre Dubček will unfortunately not be at the re-opening of the 'lost Prague Cultural Center.'   So, nearly two decades later, it is fitting and proper to remember - and say quietly - "Thanks Saša" ...appreciating the uncommon and deep personal privilege, truly understood only many, many years later, to have been invited to 'think' -that way-, and the quiet honor to have been able to say it that way.  What a great pity that 'he will not be there...'

The late, Honorable Alexandre Dubček

...during the "Prague Spring," of 1968