About us
Kunsthalle Praha is a brand-new art space on Prague's cultural map. Founded by The Pudil Family Foundation as a non-governmental organisation and non-profit platform, its aim is to connect the Czech and international art scenes.
We decided to breathe life back into the former Zenger Transformation Station building, which is situated in the historic centre of Prague, and make it a more accessible space for the most diverse audience possible. As such, you’ll find three large gallery spaces, a design shop, a bistro, and a café with a terrace that features charming views of Petřín Hill and Prague Castle. We’ve managed to build an international program around short-term exhibitions of modern and contemporary art and innovative educational activities.
Our mission is to contribute to a deeper understanding of Czech and international art from the 20th and 21st centuries. Through our art collection, research, and support for foreign artists via our artist-in-residence programme, we hope to bridge the gap between our art scene and the world’s.
Our name, Kunsthalle Praha, alludes to Prague’s multicultural past as a city of three nations, two languages, and one unique charm. Together we can help create an inspiring environment that will allow us all to discover and share new perspectives on culture and the world we live in.
We are looking forward to your visit!
Kunsthalle Praha Team
Why Kunsthalle?
The name Kunsthalle Praha is itself an accurate and internationally comprehensible designation of our institution. So-called kunsthalles, originating in the late 19th century, historically functioned as spaces hosting temporary exhibitions of contemporary art. Such kunsthalles can still be found all around Europe.
On the one hand, there were museums, spaces for storing and displaying collections; on the other hand, there were kunsthalles, which presented temporary exhibitions of living artists. With time, the conceptions of these two types of institutions began to merge. Accordingly, we are also building our own collection at Kunsthalle Praha, but we will not exhibit it permanently—instead, we will gradually reveal it via temporary thematic exhibitions as well as our upcoming online database.
Contemporary kunsthalles represent laboratories of critical thinking and open dialogue about relevant topics both in art and in society more broadly. The aim is not to conserve art, but rather to offer new perspectives and progressive tendencies, and to reflect on the world we live in. Moreover, we also understand this German term— “kunsthalle” — as reflective of Prague’s multicultural roots as a city of three nations, two languages, and a unique charm.
Throughout the 19th and first half of the 20th century, Prague was an important cultural crossroads within Europe, partly due to the coexistence of Czechs, Germans and the Jewish community. We considered it important to retain the German term “kunsthalle” and naturally connect it to the name of the Czech capital city. We see this as a kind of signal for us to collectively become aware of this crucial and still deeply inspirational part of our own history. That is why Kunsthalle Praha.
Our team
We are an international team that openly cooperates with many external partners, including local, international, private, and state institutions as well as curators, art historians, researchers, education experts, artists, and volunteers.
MANAGEMENT
Ivana Goossen
Director
Mária Videka
Assistant to the Director & Office Manager
Soňa Poláková
Finance Supervisor
Anna Povejšilová
Membership & Development Manager
EXHIBITIONS AND PUBLICATIONS
Christelle Havranek
Chief Curator
Eliška Žáková
Production Manager
Kateřina Slavíková
Incoming Loans Cooperator
Iva Polanecká
Project Manager
Lucie Sedláčková
Publications Coordinator
COLLECTION AND RESEARCH
Štefan Tóth
Collection Manager
Barbora Ropková
Curator of Collection
Anna Kodl
Assistant Curator of Collection
Žaneta Adamová
Registrar
COMMUNICATIONS
Ondřej Čížek
PR & Marketing Manager
Zuzana Dusilová
PR & Marketing Specialist
EDUCATION
Martina Freitagová
Education Programme Manager
DESIGN STORE
Tijana Slokar
Design Store Manager
Miroslav Haldina
Design Store Project Assistant
FACILITY, OPERATIONS
Kamila Švajgrová
Operations & Visitor Services Manager
Petr Hamouz
Facility Manager
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Petr Pudil
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Pavlína Pudil
Member of the Board of Directors
Ivana Goossen
Member of the Board of Directors
ADVISORY BOARD
We are currently assembling an international advisory board for Kunsthalle Praha. This will consist of an informal, non-executive body whose members are experts with a wealth of experience in art history, curation, collections management, art restoration, education, and other fields. The role of the advisory board is to support the Kunsthalle Praha in achieving its goal of becoming a leading cultural institution and a friendly and inspiring environment for the general public.
Current members:
Matthew S. Witkovsky
Richard and Ellen Sandor Chair and Curator, Department of Photography at the Art Institute of Chicago
Aaron Cezar
Director, Delfina Foundation, London
Peter Kulloi
Philantropist, Tate's Russian and Eastern European Committee Member and Board Member of various charity projects
Markéta Theinhardt
Art Historian, Associate Professor at the Université Paris-Sorbonne
