Foto: Jakub Stadler

As part of the overall mission of most national embassies, representatives aim to develop and maintain diplomatic relations with the host country. One of the most solidifying exchanges that two countries engage in is the exchange of culture, as it is often the root of understanding between populations. Within the public affairs department of the U.S. Embassy in Prague the cultural section, headed by the cultural attaché from the U.S., endeavors to provide the tools for such exchanges to take place.

Under the umbrella of cultural exchange is knowledge exchange, and this is one of the key areas of work for the cultural section. “In essence one of our overarching purposes is basically to create a deeper understanding of American society, American culture, American history, generally through making connections between non-governmental Americans—professors, artists, engineers working in certain fields—bringing them over and putting them together with their Czech counterparts. In essence that’s a lot of what we do, trying to make those exchanges happen,” Cultural Attaché with the U.S. Embassy in Prague David Gainer told CBW. Gainer explained that many of their involvements are not in cultural programs in adherence to the widely accepted understanding of the term—dealing with the arts—but also in a broad range of areas underscoring issues of democracy, security and energy security and the environment, the main themes of the U.S. Embassy mission. This year they have introduced a new grants program for institutions and projects that support elements of these themes or that contain some American component that assists in the understanding of the U.S. in the Czech Republic. Support has been given to projects ranging from the launch of the new Green Buildings Council (CzGBC) this past September to the upcoming film collaboration between Academy Award winning documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple from the U.S. and a Czech film team that will be re-creating the events of Nov. 17, 1989 in Prague.

In the realm of educational programs, aside from the more well-known activities such as the International Exchange Program or the Fulbright Program that support Czechs traveling to the U.S. and U.S. citizens traveling to the Czech Republic for study, the cultural section organizes speaker programs on topics relevant to present concerns in the Czech Republic. One such series that is currently ongoing concerns arts management, underlining the dire need for new methods of support for Czech arts institutions that are now facing difficult cuts in government funding due to the economic crisis. As the U.S. arts institutions are based on a wholly different model of financial support, the series is offering insights into possible new methods that could be employed in the Czech Republic.

Q: What is covered in the arts management series?

A: This is management for arts professionals, so for owners of art galleries, museum directors, people who run theaters, etc. For the past two years we’ve had the director of the [John F.] Kennedy Center [for the Performing Arts] in Washington [D.C.] come over and give symposiums on what is more of an American model to arts management. The focus is not just on getting big grants from the government because there isn’t a ministry of culture in the U.S., but looking at other sources of revenues, be it through donations, be it through subscriptions … so in a couple weeks we’ll have the marketing manager from the Kennedy Center give another seminar … last seminar I think we had 70 representatives of a whole variety of Czech arts institutions throughout the country, galleries, museums, theaters, symphonies … a tremendous variety of arts organizations came  to listen to these models and see if they’re applicable. Especially during this financial crisis … we certainly don’t advocate that they take all of these suggestions but if in some areas the common model for arts management in the U.S. can be applicable and helpful, that’s what we’re looking to do, that’s part of our job.

Q: That’s an issue that seems very relevant right now, with so many arts institutions experiencing cuts in government funding…

A: I think that it’s very important and what we’ve stressed the past couple of times in these arts management seminars is to say you really need to engage [patrons]. At least with the Kennedy Center and a lot of American organizations—they say that you need to get beyond the mindset that your patron will only pay this [specific] amount and think of creative ways to keep your customers coming back to your institution. If your clientele know that as a small, say, theater, you might close unless they pay a little bit more, tell them that. Or certainly look at an area where you can give them a little bit more value. Maybe do special days for members, special events where you might get a Czech luminary to come for free and donate their time. ... Especially during a difficult financial time where you have arts organizations that are highly dependent on governmental support, city support, they really do need to look at other ways to make sure that they survive.

Q: Do you come across a lot of arts organizations with complaints about the current system of funding here?

A: When we have our arts management classes … some of the organizations that we talk to certainly talk about working in a culture, an environment where culture such as going to the theater, going to hear a symphony or a concert, or going to a cultural event has been sponsored for years and years by the state. … Of course prior to 1989, it was all state sponsored, and then post-1989 still a lot of governmental support is given to these organizations and it helps to keep prices down. And so I think their concern certainly is if there are less state funds for culture—which under an economic crisis often does happen—that they’re going to have difficulties trying to attract people to their performances if they either have to charge more or if they have to cut back on their costs. So that’s why we think our arts management classes hopefully can give them new suggestions on areas where maybe they can try to increase their support through donations, through subscriptions, through offering bonus things if you are a member. … [In the U.S.] we really don’t have a central government funding mechanism for the arts, so it’s certainly an interesting contrast … it’s a completely different model. So certainly the Czech organizations I have talked to have been concerned about their future and I think that quite a few of them look at it and see that they need to rethink how things are done especially if they’re not getting the support from the government.

Q: What other new programs have you been working on this year?

A: One process that we’ve just done in the past year is that we have a grants competition. We have it posted on our website; we have a closing date and an application form for people to apply for small grants. These grants are usually between $300 [Kč 5,160/€200] and $10,000. They can be for a variety of fields but the general idea is that they should be fulfilling one of our policy initiatives or bringing a deeper understanding of American culture and society to the Czech Republic. … I think it’s been a very effective and helpful tool. The first round in January we had maybe 20 something applications … we just finished a round that was due Sept. 30 where we had 74 grant applications. … Our next round of grants will be due Jan. 31, 2010. … It has allowed us to reach out and work with partners we haven’t worked with before.

Q: Are there any concerns about possible budget cuts for next year?

A: Well right now we don’t have our appropriation from Congress yet and I would be very hesitant to predict what the U.S. Congress will do but I think that we will probably be at about the same budget as over the past couple of years. … Traditionally we’ve had a budget of about $2.3 to $2.4 million. About a million of that goes to Fulbright, so the money that we see is about $1.3 million per year or so. Out of that we have to cover our salaries and based on the exchange rate that can be 65 percent of our costs. So at the end of the day … we have about $400,000 a year to use. Sometimes we do big conferences on a theme, that might take more away but I think for the grants I am optimistic we will have enough money, maybe even a little bit more than last year. … One thing about the grants—we often don’t want to fund a project in full, we are looking for projects that have partners … so that the organization is sustainable and doing something on its own. … Our budgets are not that big, and so we look for areas where we can make those connections and hopefully those connections can stay and hold.

Q: So you focus greatly on establishing the initial connections?

A: Certainly, that’s where we see our role, to try finding Czechs that are working in an interesting area, be it science and technology or the arts, and see who in the U.S. might be helpful. One interesting program that we run and it’s something that we internally nominate is a very successful program since it was established in the late 1940s—the International Exchange Program. We look for people who we think will be the leaders in the Czech Republic in the next 10 years or 20 years—we send them to the U.S. on what is now a three week trip where they always go to Washington [D.C.] first and meet for three or four days with people in Washington who are in their field, and then they usually go to three, maybe four other cities and have meetings, collaborations, discussions with people who work in their field and that’s also hopefully where the connections can occur. Just last month we had four Czechs who work in the environmental energy efficiency fields … they went to Washington first and then they went to three or four cities throughout the U.S. to look at not necessarily what the U.S. federal government is doing, but what local communities and states are doing. … We see our job as sort of matchmakers in those fields. … We send about 20 Czechs per year on these programs. What we try to do is have those individuals come back and tell us … ‘Hey we just went to Nebraska to see what they’re doing and this group would be great to work with,’ and then we can look into maybe bringing some of those people over here, or connecting them via digital video conference, so somehow trying to help them to keep in touch. We also have been starting to have some of these Czechs who come back do presentations here not just about their experience but about work in their field.

Q: How much do politics get involved in some of these programs, in terms of representing American culture here?

A: Some of the most effective programming that can be done is to show dissenting voices. One of our most successful attributes or generally accepted tenants [in the U.S.]  is freedom of speech and so I think we certainly have no issues on trying to program or place dissenting American voices on issues that might not necessarily be exactly in line with policy. … Certainly, as the U.S. Embassy, we support the policy directives of our president and we’re certainly supporting programs within our key three areas, democracy, security and energy security and the environment. That being said, a core issue for us is to ensure that Czechs understand the importance of free speech in the U.S. and that creates spaces where those types of conversations and dialogues can happen. … You don’t want to balance it where you have only one side represented … it doesn’t get to the nuanced, the textured, the difficult points of an argument. It doesn’t get to the complexities, and we value the complexities of any of the issues we’re looking at, be it what the Czechs are doing in Afghanistan, be it what the Czechs are doing in their policies in Cuba, in the Balkans, and trying to get at least a more lively intellectual debate going on the values of these topics. It’s certainly a value for us.

Q: What has been most surprising for you in your experience here so far?

A: Prior to this I was in Melbourne, Australia, prior to that in Phnom Penh, Cambodia—I had never been to Prague before arriving in December last year. I certainly knew about the glorious buildings, the tremendous history, the wonderful squares, the ability to walk around Prague and suddenly see a 13th century tower or a 14th century bridge or a 19th century theater. I knew about all the various layers here but I think what’s been really heartening and exciting is the contemporary culture and the activity that is happening in contemporary art and culture in the Czech Republic. There is a lot of interesting work that Czech artists, musicians, scholars, are putting out. Going to gallery openings and film shows and other sorts of typical cultural events all the time I was quite excited and heartened by the sophistication and the variety of choice that is here. Besides going to a classical music concert or a symphony you can go to … [something like] Czech-American Petr Kotik in the Ostrava New Music Days which attracted a lot of cutting edge, contemporary-classical, avant-garde musicians and composers. There’s a lot happening and not just in Prague, and I think that’s what has been most exciting. To see the level of cultural activities that are happening here has certainly been a very nice surprise and it’s also a good challenge for us because we need to think of ways in which we can find areas in which Americans and Czechs can collaborate in these fields.

Q: Do you have anything in particular that you are planning for in 2010 and in 2011?

A: Well I think that on the policy side we’re certainly going to be focusing on energy and environment, environment in particular—climate change education. To bring a wider, deeper awareness of what climate change is and how you can have an effect on change, be it through buildings or through other activities. On the cultural front, we’ll certainly continue this arts management series. So far it has attracted more established institutions, the institutions that are considered more ‘high brow’ ... I think if we can take this arts management program and sort of bring it to cultural activities that might not necessarily have such a big budget or different kinds of budgets. [For example] there’s a very large university, sort of Internet-based music culture in the U.S., to see if there are areas in which Americans who work in that area can work with Czech counterparts in their fields I think that would be quite interesting—a sort of arts management for a low brow culture. Be it in comic books, be it in a wide variety of activities. Certainly we’ll also continue with some of our longer term partners. … But I think that’s one of the things that’s helpful about the grants committee, is that hopefully we will get institutions that we haven’t worked with much before reaching out to us. … There are so many activities going on in the Czech Republic, trying to look at ways that we can be of benefit in a city, in a country that has a riches of cultural activities is I think important and a challenge to think in ways that we can do programs that are meaningful and reach the Czech audience that knows about us and also the new Czech audiences. That’s where I see the work ahead—to find ways in which we can make what we do stand out, be unique, be helpful, be interesting and be stimulating. … I think Prague is at a great crossroads in that it is becoming a contemporary culture spot.