Almost every Czech visited a museum or gallery on average once last year

Prague - Almost every resident of the Czech Republic visited a museum or gallery on average once last year. These institutions were visited by nearly 9.8 million people in 2006, the highest number in the last five years. Since 2002, the number of their visitors has risen by more than a million. The figures come from a report by the National Information and Consulting Center for Culture (NIPOS).
About half of the country's population attended the theater last year - NIPOS statistics recorded five million visitors. An average Czech visited the library twice last year and visited one of the accessible monuments - state-owned or otherwise owned - approximately once.
NIPOS states that last year there were 61 galleries in operation in the Czech Republic with 35 branches, 242 exhibition halls, 351 museums with 258 branches, and 66 memorials. According to the report, 56 of the 61 galleries were established by the state, regions, or municipalities, three galleries were established by churches, foundations, or civic associations; it does not record the number of private galleries. However, it mentions 48 private museums with six branches.
Of the total of 9.76 million visitors, according to data obtained by NIPOS, 7.64 million people visited 898 state, regional, or municipal galleries, museums, and memorials along with their branches last year. 1.44 million people visited 57 similar institutions belonging to churches, foundations, or associations, and 979,000 people visited 55 private museums.
In the monitored museums and galleries last year, there were 1,793 permanent exhibitions, and this number has been slightly increasing since 2002 when there were 1,557. The institutions organized a total of 3,760 exhibitions last year - this number has been steadily, though not drastically, increasing since 2002 (when there were 3,234).
Among the galleries, the National Gallery in Prague has the most permanent exhibitions - also 11, like the year before. However, the most exhibitions last year were organized by the Moravian Gallery in Brno - 43, of which 13 were traveling. The second place goes to the House of Art in Brno with 36 exhibitions, while the NG is third with 33 projects, but none of them was presented anywhere other than at the place of origin. In 2005, the Moravian Gallery also led with 39 exhibitions, NG was second (35), and the House of Art had 33 exhibitions. More than ten exhibitions were organized last year by 20 galleries.
Yet, NG led last year in the number of visitors - it had 553,869, significantly up from 336,842 the previous year. The second place in last year's attendance belongs to the Museum of Art in Olomouc (163,946), the third to the Gallery of the Capital City of Prague (146,982), and fourth is the Zdeněk Burian Gallery in Dvůr Králové nad Labem with 130,000 visitors.
Among museums, the Technical Museum in Brno leads in the number of organized exhibitions, surpassing the National Museum with its 79 exhibitions last year, whereas the National Museum organized 74 exhibitions the previous year. Last year it was ranked fourth with 43 exhibitions. However, it is still second in terms of the number of visitors for last year, with 560,657. The most visited Czech museum has long been the Jewish Museum in Prague, which had 629,383 visitors last year.