Since the beginning of museums, works of art have been incorporated in their collections. Before long, the museum staff began to realize that it is the art collections that requires a different method of care and presentation and they tried to develop a specialized art museum sector. Their effort to create a unified organization, defining competencies and creating a unified network, including passing the relevant bill, was one of the main tasks of the Ministry of Education after the establishment of an independent state in 1918. This goal was not realized until the 1940s, when a decision of the then government authorities started the emergence of galleries in their current form and allocation and systematizing of these works within the museum's collections started.
The creation of Havlickuv Brod gallery, like of many other Czech galleries / art museums, was based on this complex process of allocation. Its foundation was a collection of art from the so-called Town Gallery, divided from the museum in 1946. The collection included paintings and sculptures by regional artists or works linked to the region. Through negotiations of regional department of galleries of the National Gallery with the Department of Culture of DNC Havlickuv Brod it was decided that for its specialization in modern Czech book illustration, drawings and graphics the Gallery of Havlickuv Brod will occupy a special place in the newly constructed nationwide network. The specialization was chosen with regard to the tradition of exhibiting experience within the East Bohemian publishers and it built also on the art competition held annually on the occasion of National festival of humour and satire Hašek’s Lipnice. For a short period the gallery also managed a regional art collection, but after establishing bases of new collection funds, the original collection was transferred back to the museum department and the gallery started to focus only on art of the corresponding specialization.
GALERIE VÝTVARNÉHO UMĚNÍ
V HAVLÍČKOVĚ BRODĚ
Havlíčkovo nám. 18
580 01 Havlíčkův Brod
Czech Republic
e-mail: galerie@galeriehb.cz
tel./fax.: 569 427 035