The School of Arts and Crafts in Brno (1924–2024)

The School of Arts and Crafts (Škola uměleckých řemesel, abbreviated ŠUŘ), founded by the Brno Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship in 1924, was intended to represent a specific modern alternative to the primarily German-language educational institutions of its type present in Moravia since the end of the 19th century, yet also to Prague’s Academy of Applied Arts (UMPRUM) and professionally analogous schools in Austria and Germany. Its teaching staff, active both in the setting of the First Czechoslovak Republic and the German occupation of the early 1940s, deliberately focused on the cultivation of a modern local cultural identity and artistic production that would form the linchpin between international modernity and Moravian regional traditions. Today, the designation of ŠUŘ remains in use only informally; the official title is the Secondary School of Art and Design (Střední škola umění a designu), and includes as well a higher professional school of the same orientation (Vyšší odborná škola Brno). 

The international conference will present during the first day twelve contributions by Czech researchers and one performance. The program will involve selected thematic investigations of the history of the School of Arts and Crafts. The second day will be devoted to six contributions from international researchers, followed by a roundtable discussion. As such, the program of the second day provides information about the Europe-wide context of artistic training in the 20th century, and the current state and future visions of the Secondary School of Art and Design in open discussion about the tendencies and purposes of applied-arts training today.

During the conference, one noteworthy contribution will be the presentation of the outcome of a two-year-long art-historical research project by a team from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design (UMPRUM) in Prague along with other invited experts on the topic. Using partial, microhistorical diversions, it thus becomes possible to open against the backdrop of historical contexts various smaller investigations to provide a more complex, three-dimensional image of the institution. In parallel with conveying the positive aspects and innovative methods, these “soundings” will in many cases equally bring up critical or controversial circumstances, tracing many individual moments in art history and artistic education that emerged from outside the certainties of the established canon. This research project will culminate in the autumn of 2025 with an extensive exhibition accompanied by a scholarly catalogue, to be held at the House of Arts. The planned exhibition will open on October 21, 2025.

The conference may be followed online at YouTube. Simultaneous interpreting between Czech and English will be provided.

More information about the contributions and other program at dum-umeni.cz.