In 2024, the ATI responded flexibly to the needs of its founder (the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic) in connection with the implementation of the National Recovery Plan (NRP). Through these funds, the ATI distributed more than CZK 40 million to Czech artists and cultural professionals last year.
"This year, the ATI has redistributed a record amount of funds to Czech artists, especially for the creation and creation of new art projects. We have also long supported international cooperation and internationalization of Czech professionals, which would not be possible without this support. When forming the calls, we focused primarily on motivating the cultural sector so that the supported projects would be sustainable even after the end of the NRP," says Pavla Petrová, Director of the ATI.
In 2024, the Pro-Export Music Office of the Arts Institute SoundCzech supported the trips of 63 music professionals to conferences and 19 in the ProVisit program to Krakow and Slovakia through the NPO as part of the LinksOUT calls. "We supported 6 concert performances by Czech music artists that the festivals chose. Czech music artists and professionals participated in networking activities at prestigious events," says SoundCzech project coordinator Monika Klementová. He also considers the fact that representatives of the Czech Let it Roll festival were given the opportunity to program the stage at the South by Southwest film and music festival, which is one of the largest music events in the US, to be a significant success of 2024. Czech drum and bass producer and DJ Rido and musician Anna Vaverková performed there. The Czech music scene was also represented at the All About Music festival in Mumbai, A2IM IndieWeek in New York and M for Montréal, where Manon Meurt performed this year.
The PerformCzech office, which supports Czech artists' trips abroad in 2024, implemented 16 calls that were funded by the NRP. These included, for example, the Czech participation in the Tanzmesse and CINARS fairs.
"Last year, we had the opportunity to announce 16 open calls in the field of performing arts within the NRP. These funds have made it possible to strengthen the presentation of Czech performing arts at prestigious foreign fairs and festivals, with Czech artists having presented themselves in the USA, Canada, Hong Kong, Chile and Brazil, for example. We have also managed to develop more cooperation not only with European partners, but also with more distant cultures and destinations, where relationships have been developed mainly in the form of curated missions abroad for groups of theatre and dance professionals," says Michal Lázňovský on behalf of PerformCzech, International Cooperation Department.
Funds from the NRP also enabled the implementation of a number of educational programs and events. Translation residencies and internships were organized as part of the PerformCzech SKILLS programme. The office also organized an international congress of the Association of Czech Theatre Critics (AICT), which was attended by 80 theatre critics from all over the world and 20 young students who had a workshop there.