The Minister of Culture will likely select the director of the NG on June 3rd

Prague - Minister of Culture Václav Riedlbauch will meet again next week with the selection committee that reviewed candidates for the director of the National Gallery in Prague (NG). He expects to announce the name of the future director on the same day, June 3, said the ministry's spokesperson Jan Cieslar today.
    The Minister invited eight domestic members of the committee, which is two-thirds of its total. Under the leadership of the dean of the Faculty of Arts at Charles University Michal Stehlík, the committee met on April 14, along with Marta Smolíková, director of the Proculture association, art historians Milena Bartlová and Zdeněk Felix, and Tomáš Vlček, director of the collection of modern and contemporary art at NG, who is a direct subordinate of the current director Milan Knížák, whose candidacy was also reviewed.
    The Minister did not announce the name of Milan Knížák's successor, who has been leading the gallery for almost 11 years, even six weeks after the selection committee meeting. According to still unofficial information, the committee recommended appointing art historian Jiří Fajt as the director of NG.
    The ministry has not yet published a list of candidates. Riedlbauch, according to his words from last week, still has two names in his narrower selection - the director of the Moravian Gallery in Brno, Marek Pokorný, and financier Vladimír Rösela; he reportedly also met with curator Richard Drury and the director of the collection of old art at NG, Vít Vlnas.
    The competition for the NG director was announced by the Minister in February, and he initially stated that he wanted to know the name of the new NG director before the elections. However, after the committee meeting, which according to unofficial information reached a consensus on Fajt with a vote of 10:2, the minister has not yet decided.
    It is also unclear when the new director might assume office. Knížák has repeatedly stated that he would like to remain at the head of NG until the end of next year. Riedlbauch also speaks of the need to maintain the institution's continuity. Given that the Ministry of Culture today talks about a "future" NG director, it is likely that the new head of the institution will not start immediately.
    Instead of selecting the NG director, the Minister has been focusing in recent weeks on personnel changes in other contributory organizations; only some of these changes were planned when he took office. One such change was the appointment of a new director of the State Opera of Prague, where the current director's extended mandate ends on June 30. On May 21, he appointed conductor Oliver Dohnányi as director and also established the position of administrative director, which will be held by Tomáš Olexa.
    Almost a year before the end of the current director's term at the Prague Philharmonic Choir (PFS), he announced a competition for the position in April. PFS director Richard Sporka, who had disputes with Riedlbauch when the current Minister led the Czech Philharmonic (ČF), is applying for the competition. The application deadline is today, so the Minister still has to decide on the new choir chief.
    Regarding ČF, Riedlbauch concluded months of speculation on May 7 about whether he would dismiss its director and his predecessor Vladimír Darjanin. A few days later, he appointed former head of Czech Radio Václav Kasík as the new director without a competition. The ČF orchestra supports Darjanin, does not recognize Riedlbauch's arguments about poor management, and is also dissatisfied with the method of appointing Kasík. In protest against Darjanin's dismissal, they even canceled a significant concert and are planning a protest performance in front of Rudolfinum on Thursday at noon.
    Darjanin was appointed director of ČF by former Minister of Culture Václav Jehlička, who also prepared a system for the regular evaluation of the work of directors of contributory organizations. However, it was Riedlbauch who implemented it, having also evaluated the heads of five other organizations out of a total of 31.