The Jan and Meda
Mládek Foundation

•••••

Meda Mládek founded the Jan and Meda Mládek Foundation in 1999 to promote fine art and present the collection of modern art that she and her husband had assembled since the 1950s.

The mission of the Jan and Meda Mládek Foundation – Museum Kampa is to promote interest in fine art among visitors from this country and abroad, to introduce the public to modern and contemporary art, and to help revitalise our knowledge of this aspect of culture. The museum carries out its mission through its permanent exhibition, which features a collection of paintings, drawings and prints by a pioneer of abstract art, František Kupka, a group of sculptures by the Cubist sculptor Otto Gutfreund, and series of monographic and thematic exhibitions that present developments in classical modernism from František Kupka onwards, together with works by major Central European artists (Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Serbs and Croats) from the latter half of the 20th century. These temporary exhibitions are just as important for the museum’s mission. By focusing on progressive movements in 20th-century Czech and European art, the museum stands out from other institutions whose exhibitions and research either concentrate on contemporary art or cover a much broader spectrum. Museum Kampa’s well-defined approach has ensured it a prominent place among Czech and Central European institutions. Each year Museum Kampa receives approximately 100 000 visitors from all over the world. In 2015 the British newspaper The Guardian rated the museum as one of the five most interesting small private museums in Europe.

Alongside collections and exhibitions, the foundation attaches great importance to education programmes. To this end Museum Kampa has opened an education department, which organises numerous events and projects for schools, families, students, senior citizens and the general public. There are also side events, including concerts, author readings, multigenre programmes, games and projects such as yoga at the museum. These education programmes and side events are aimed at fostering interest in modern art and facilitating interaction with the works on display, as well as presenting ways of understanding various forms of artistic expression, and in a broader scope promoting an awareness of the importance of cultural diversity and the cultural heritage of the whole world.

The foundation is also active in publishing and cultural activities. The Jan and Meda Mládek Foundation publishes catalogues and monographs for almost all of Museum Kampa’s temporary exhibitions, and for its permanent exhibition too. Other publishing activities have included three volumes of correspondence between Jiří Voskovec and Jan Werich, in collaboration with the Akropolis publishing house.

In 2012 Jiří Pospíšil joined the Jan and Meda Mládek Foundation’s Board of Directors, becoming its chairman in 2016. Under his guidance the foundation’s collection has expanded, and the exhibition programme now also embraces artists who left Czechoslovakia due to the totalitarian regime and whose work is in consequence not particularly well-known in their own country.