GJF is one of the few institutions in the Czech Republic that has focused exclusively on architecture for a long time. It was established in connection with the reconstruction of the Bethlehem Chapel complex and was named in honor of the main architect of this reconstruction, Jaroslav Fragner. In the pre-revolutionary period, it belonged to the Association of Czech Architects and organized important exhibitions, such as the Urbanity cycle or the Mid-Pressure exhibition. After 1989, it became involved in international events and established itself as a space for monographic exhibitions and current architectural topics. In 2020, the gallery building was acquired by the Czech Technical University in Prague from the Czech Architecture Foundation. The following period was associated with the transformation of its institutional background and the search for a new direction.
The current step follows the initiatives of the Faculty of Architecture aimed at a professional debate on the functioning and future direction of the gallery, which the faculty opened last year, among other things, with a public letter from the Dean and the Academic Senate of the Faculty of Architecture addressed to the then management of CTU. Thanks to constructive cooperation with the new university management, headed by Rector Michal Pěchouček, we managed to find a solution that creates conditions for the long-term stable and professionally strong functioning of the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery.
"The Jaroslav Fragner Gallery is an extremely important institution for us for the presentation of architecture and public debate about its social significance. We have worked intensively to ensure that the gallery regains the appropriate institutional background and can fully develop its role as an open platform connecting the university environment with the professional and general public. I am glad that a new stage in its functioning and further development is now opening," says Dalibor Hlaváček, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture of CTU.
The gallery will now be directly subordinate to the Dean of the Faculty of Architecture of CTU and its activities will be managed by a director selected on the basis of an open selection procedure. Its management will also include the Gallery Board as a professional advisory body. The new statute defines the institution's mission as a public exhibition space focused on architecture, urbanism, landscape architecture, heritage conservation and other related fields. The gallery will contribute to interdisciplinary professional and public debate and, in addition to exhibitions, will also develop educational, research and popularization activities.
Details can be found at kariérních stránkách FA ČVUT.