CZECH REPUBLIC 
2003
Consultants: Ralph Applebaum • Hubert Bari • James Bradburne • Kenneth Haas • Virginia Hubbell • Bradford Kelleher • Martin Klingenberg • Jay Levenson • Elaine M. Lomenzo • Klaus Mueller • Jillian Poole • Charles Ritcheson • Jane Safer • A.N. Scallon • Sheldon Schwartz • George Stuart Sexton, III • Julian Spalding • Mary Delle Stelzer • Albert K. Webster
In
late June, Jillian Poole went to Prague to help formally launch the Czech
National Memory Project. She was joined by Fund Consultant James Bradburne,
and together they brought to a close Fund activities in the Czech Republic.
This visit brought to 335 the number of days consultants have spent in
Czechoslovakia and The Czech Republic since we first started working there in
1991.
Prague
The National Memory Project – June 22-25, 2003
The
Czech National Memory Project is a project of the Board of the Foundation/Fund
for Czech Museums and Galleries
that The Fund was instrumental in starting in the early 1990s and has worked
with consistently in the intervening years. This Board has provided the
vehicle for joint activities for these museums and a way to include
international members who can be helpful to the museums of the Republic. Over
the years, the Foundation/Fund has
undertaken various notable projects including a statistical study of the impact
of the economic benefits of culture in the Prague Region.
The Czech Memory
project is the Foundation/Fund’s
most ambitious to date. Its goal is to collect and preserve the vanishing
testimonials to the devastating impact of four decades of Communist rule on the
fabric of society and the daily lives of private citizens in this country. It
is envisioned that this will become the largest virtual history project ever
undertaken, and will make extensive use of online Internet technology. It has
created a special website at www.absurditytotality.cz where written and oral stories, photographs, documents, artifacts, letters and memorabilia will be posted for
public viewing and research. The National Museum, which will serve as the
collection venue for the project, can be reached by e-mail at absurdity-totality@sezman.cz.
Residents of the Warsaw Pact countries are being urged to submit materials that
will underscore the international universality of certain Communist practices
The project was
publicly announced at a press conference in the press room of the Senate. Two
members of the project’s Honorary Committee spoke at length and movingly about
the project’s importance, the renowned writer Ivan Klima and Dr. Jiri Vlach, a
major political figure. Currently funding is being sought to engage a
full-time director/coordinator for the project.
“The site looks great and hopefully will surprise us all by
developing in yet unknown ways - becoming a space where memories not only are
stored, but communicated and discussed. Ego-documents, memories,
diaries sometimes can have a surprising and long-term effect on human
memory.”
— Consultant comment
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