The former director of the Olomouc Museum of Art awarded by Poland

26 Nov 2019
NEWS| 25. 11. 2019 Poland will appreciate the contribution of Olomouc Museum of Art to the quality of Czech-Polish relations by awarding its former director Michal Soukup with the prestigious Bene Merito decoration. Besides that, the music archive of Kroměříž, which is administrated by the Olomouc Museum of Art, will receive a personal gift from the world famous composer Krzysztof Penderecki.
The Polish minister of foreign affairs Jacek Czaputowicz awarded the former director of the Olomouc Museum of Art Michal Soukup with the decoration Bene Merito for his extraordinary contribution to the quality of cooperation between Poland and Czech Republic.  Michal Soukup will accept the decoration at the Embassy of Poland in Prague on Monday, 25th November. The nomination confirms his professional international activities in cooperation with Polish partners; one of the relevant examples was the very successful exhibition Abstraction.PL presented last year in Olomouc Museum of Art.  “I understand this award as a compliment for the activities of the whole Olomouc museum of Art and its Central European Forum Olomouc, as its long term goal is to present the visual art not only from Poland, but culture from the whole area of Central Europe. One of excellent examples is the project Years of Disarray migrating to all V4 countries, which would have never become possible without great cooperation of our Polish partners. We even have plans for the future already – next year, there is an exhibition of Jan Pamuła planned in our museum”, describes Michal Soukup.  The exhibition Years of Disarray 1908 – 1928 last year was opened by a gala concert conducted personally by Krzystof Penderecki, the phenomenal Polish composer of the world famous piece Credo. On suggestion of Michal Soukup, he decided to dedicate a part of his score to Credo to the music archive of Kroměříž. It will be the only Czech institution owning an art work by maestro Penderecki. 
“I am very pleased with the decision of Maestro Penderecki. Our unique collection will gain a great masterpiece of contemporary music, which will be presented among other masters as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Pavel Josef Vejvanoský or Ludvik van Beethoven. This is a very special moment for us,” adds director of Olomouc Museum of Arts, Ondřej Zatloukal.