Czech Centres broaden their activities

Are you interested in classical or contemporary Czech music and art, or would you like to enrol for a course of Czech? Well, you don't have to travel all the way to the Czech Republic. In 15 countries of the world, there are 18 Czech Centres, establishments similar to the British Council or the French Institute, whose aim is to promote the Czech Republic abroad. Their work focuses especially on culture, trade and tourism, and each centre hosts events, such as film festivals, art exhibitions, literature readings or trade presentations. For a symbolic price, they also offer Czech-language courses.

Czech Centres broaden their activities

The Czech Centres abroad work under the umbrella of the Czech Foreign Ministry but as their new director Jan Bondy says, they focus on "public diplomacy", that is making contact with the public and encourage them to pay a visit to the Czech Republic. I asked Mr Bondy about what's new at his organisation.

"First I have to mention we are able to open a Czech Centre in Madrid in Spain. So we will start teaching the Czech language there and also our new activities are in Germany. We are running a project called "Czech Regions" to present Czech regions abroad and I hope you will enjoy our activities in the countries where our centres are."

Czech Centres also run long-term projects aimed at promoting the Czech Republic. One of them is called Czech Idea and it tries to present the Czech Republic as a good brand on the global market.

"Czech Idea uses the activities of Czech young people to find the right way to promote the Czech Republic. To promote the country is not only a problem of a new democracy such as the Czech Republic in larger Europe. It is a problem of all countries, so we should try to manage the promotion of the Czech Republic as an interesting country which is interesting to visit and through the activities of the young generation to promote the country."

As part of the Czech Idea project Czech Centres asked young Czech students of graphic design to try and present the Czech Republic as an attractive brand. Under the title "The Czech Republic and Me", their works will be on display until mid-November in the Centre for Central European Architecture in Prague. And that is another new thing at Czech Centres - showing Czechs back home what they present to the public abroad.

For more information, see www.czechcentres.cz