Festival Open House: Show Interest in the City in which You Live!
"Architecture is all around us and it is good to perceive it," says Eva Jiřičná, a notable Czech architect and patron of the festival.
If you like Prague architecture and entertainment associated with the exploring of new luxurious places, Open House Prague is intended for you. In the days of 19. and 20. May the door to dozens of interesting Prague buildings and premises will open, to which access of public is prohibited throughout the rest of the year.
Do not think, however, that the only aim of the project is to entertain the public. We asked the director of the Open House Festival Prague, Andrea Šenkyříková, what the mission of this unique project is, who stands behind it, and what effort must be expended on annual basis for us to be able to get to know new aspects of our capital.
Show Interest in the city in which we live!
Open House is a project that takes place in many countries and which has a unique form depending on location. "Slovenia is for example focused more on working with children and various groups of the population, including the disabled. That is a direction in which we would also like to go," says Andrea Šenkyříková.
But at the same time she adds that the support on the part of public institutions and the corporate system is in the Czech Republic low as compared to other states.
"From my point of view it is necessary first to change public opinion so that public space is given a more prominent role. Until the citizens themselves are more concerned about the town in which they live, there will be no pressure which is necessary in order to make any change."
The entire workload is done by 7 organisers and hundreds of volunteers!
If you expected a large organisation that every year prepares the luxury festival Open House, you are greatly mistaken. In the preparations of this year is involved a seven-member organisational team which does this work more or less in their ´free time´, and approximately 300 volunteers from among students, photographers and architects. Open House is also cooperated upon by many people associated with the buildings themselves - the owners, guards, cleaners, etc. They all deserve big thanks, because without their help the Open House Festival Prague probably couldn´t exist.
The future of Open House Festival:
"The Festival will never be a "profitable" project. Nor is it our ambition; we do not want to introduce admission fees. Nevertheless our vision is to build a stable base for the organisation of the annual programmes which would offer architectural topics for different social and age groups."Andrea Šenkyříková.
