Czechoslovak Society of Arts & Sciences

Sunday, MAY 30, 2021, at 5 PM EDT

Come learn about the wonder of European landscape architecture in South Moravia, Czech Republic!
Two expert landscape architects Zdenek Novák (Prague) and Stefan Yarabek (New York) will present the park and gardens of the Lednice-Valtice Estates, UNESCO World Heritage Cultural Landscape Site, Europe’s largest man-made landscape (5x Manhattan), and The Lu &Tiree Herb Garden in Valtice, unique, organic garden with 300 herb species. You will also learn about the 18th Century orphans in Valtice, Franz and Ferdinand Bauer, who later became world-renown botanic artists.

PROGRAM

Zdenek NOVÁK, the primary author of the Lednice-Valtice UNESCO World Heritage Cultural Landscape Site report designation, will take you on a tour of this remarkable place. Some 600 years in the making, it is the largest man-made landscape in Europe, connecting two Liechtenstein châteaux eight kilometers apart. He will present the history of the landscape, activities of the Princes of Liechtenstein in agriculture, landscaping, architecture and art during the Renaissance, Baroque, and Enlightenment periods. He will also discuss the legacy of the 18th century Abbot Norbert Boccius in Valtice and of two talented orphans left in his care, Franz and Ferdinand Bauer, who later became world-renowned botanic artists.

Stefan YARABEK will then present the unique Lu & Tiree Chmelar Herb Garden in Valtice and pay homage to the late Lubomir and Tiree Chmelar, New Yorkers and co-founders of the Prague-Vienna Greenways program in the 1990s. Both were dedicated advocates of environmental and cultural preservation in Czechoslovakia after the fall of communism. They also initiated the World Monuments Fund restoration of the historic kitchen garden at the Valtice Château, the unique Lednice Conservatory and Adaptive Reuse Design Studies of both Lednice and Valtice Châteaux.

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ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

Zdenek Novák is the world-leading expert on the Liechtenstein Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape, and historic gardens and cultural landscapes. Currently servings as director of the National Agriculture Museum in Prague, he was previously director of the Monument Preservation Institute (NPU) in South Moravia, former deputy minister and general director at the Czech Ministry of Culture. Active in the Czech Heritage Fund, he is the author of the successful nomination of Lednice-Valtice to the UNESCO World Heritage List. He facilitated eight other successful nominations, including Kromeriž Château and Gardens and Tugendhat Villa in Brno.

Stefan Yarabek is a landscape architect based in Saugerties, NY, and the Friends of Czech Greenways president. Of Czech and Slovak descent, Stefan helped design and develop the Prague-Vienna Greenways project in Czechoslovakia since its conception in 1990. He contributed to creating a St. John Nepomucene trail in Tel? (UNESCO site) as well, and worked on the initial restoration plan for the town square in Valtice. His collaborative work with Zdenek Novák and landscape documentation at the 1993 and 1994 Charrettes on Conservation and Economic Enhancement of Lednice Valtice, sponsored by the World Monuments Fund, contributed to the UNESCO designation as a World Heritage Cultural Landscape. Stefan is an active member of several major Hudson River Valley heritage and preservation initiatives, such as the Hudson River Valley Greenway and the Hudson River National Heritage Area. Furthermore he designed landscape restoration of an early 17th-century Bohemian settlement in the Hudson River Valley.

Free and open to the public.
Suggested donation $5.00

The event will be live streamed on Zoom.

RSVP through Eventbrite to receive the Zoom link.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sunday-in-the-park-tickets-153159763977

This event is organized by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, New York Chapter, and Friends of Czech Greenways in New York, with the support of the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association.

Thursday, APRIL 29, 2021
2:00 PM until 11 PM EDT or until we are finished.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the publication of the first part of Jaroslav Hašek’s classic The Good Soldier Švejk(Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za svetové války) in 1921, the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) in New York invites you to its nonstop online reading in English.

Did you know that The Good Soldier Švejk is the most translated Czech novel? Joseph Heller said that if he had not read it, he would never have written Catch-22.

Readers across the globe will take turns reading. They will include actors, translators, scholars, students, and other friends of Czech culture. At 2 pm EDT, Václav Paris, Professor of Comparative Literature at City College, will provide a brief introduction. Christopher Harwood, Lecturer in Czech at Columbia University, will moderate the event. The reading will continue until the end of Part One, whenever that may be.

Reading locations will include New York, Prague, London, Genoa, Istanbul, Uppsala, Oman’s Salalah, Los Angeles, Chicago, and others.

REGISTER to receive a link to the event and other announcements.

The event is organized by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU NY) with the support of the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA) in New York.
Media partner is Czech Center NY. Producer Suzanna Halsey. Technical support Vera Dvorak and Kim Halsey.

PROGRAM and READERS
Please note that the times are only estimates and can vary due to various reading speeds, and other unforeseen circumstances. The times are in EDT!

WELCOME and TALK
2:00 PM Genoa, Italy Václav Paris Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature at The City College of New York

INTRO 1

“PREFACE”
2:20 PM New York City Chris Harwood Lecturer in Czech at Columbia University

CHAPTER I
“THE GOOD SOLDIER ŠVEJK INTERVENES IN THE GREAT WAR”
2:22 PM Prague Gerald Turner Translator in Prague
2:29 PM Istanbul Charles Sabatos Professor at Yeditepe University, Ihsan Haluk Talay and Ali Karakaya students at Yeditepe University

CHAPTER II
“THE GOOD SOLDIER ŠVEJK AT POLICE HEADQUARTERS”
2:44 PM Uppsala, Sweeden Julie Hansen Associate Professor of Slavic Languages at Uppsala University
2:55 PM London David Manasian Retired journalist

INTRO 2

CHAPTER III
“ŠVEJK BEFORE THE MEDICAL EXPERTS”
3:08 PM Bristol, UK Julia Sutton-Mattocks Lecturer in Czech and Russian literature and culture at the University of Bristol
3:14 PM Salalah Oman Karen Adams South African English Lecturer

CHAPTER IV
“ŠVEJK THROWN OUT OF THE LUNATIC ASYLUM”
3:22 PM Kuwait City Martin Dvorak Czech Ambassador to Kuwait and Qatar, former Czech Consul General in New York

CHAPTER V
“ŠVEJK AT POLICE STATION AT SALMOVA STREET”
3:45 PM Newcastle upon Tyne, UK Jane Arnfield Associate Professor of Theatre & Performance at Northumbria University
3:50 PM New York City Elizabeth Andrews Actographer

CHAPTER VI
“ŠVEJK HOME AGAIN AFTER HAVING BROKEN THROUGH THE VICIOUS CIRCLE”
4:02 PM London Julia Sherwood Translator and Miriam Sherwood Theatre-maker and fundraiser
4:18 PM New York City Maxwell Zener Actor and audiobook narrator

INTRO 3

CHAPTER VII
“ŠVEJK GOES TO THE WAR”
4:27 PM Prague Zdenek Maryska Actor
4:39 PM New York City Debra Lass Actress

CHAPTER VIII
“ŠVEJK THE MALINGERER”
4:46 PM Prague Karel Hermanek, Jr. Actor
4:55 PM Cold Spring, NY Vit Horejs “Actor and puppeteer Czechoslovak American Marionette Theater”
5:10 PM Prague Ronald Prokes Actor and musician
5:20 PM Sydney Richard Fidler Author and broadcaster

INTRO 4

CHAPTER IX
“ŠVEJK IN THE GARRISON GAOL”
5:33 PM Boston Veronika Tuckerova Preceptor in Slavic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University
5:42 PM Bloomington, IN Craig Cravens Senior Lecturer at Indiana University and Rebecca Cravens Russian language instructor at Indiana University
6:01 PM Rochester, NY Dustin Stalnaker Historian
6:07 PM Chicago Krista Pospisil Friend of the T. G. Masaryk School in Cicero, IL
6:13 PM Philadelphia Abigail Weil Lecturer in Czech at the University of Pennsylvania

INTRO 5

CHAPTER X
“ŠVEJK BATMAN TO THE CHAPLAIN”
6:24 PM Saugerties, NY Stefan Yarabek Landscape Architect and President of Friends of Czech Greenways
6:35 PM New York City Eric Oleson Actor
6:44 PM New York City Megan Metrikin Actor and writer
6:52 PM Denver, CO Jay DeYonker Actor
7:00 PM New York City Michelle Beshaw Theatre artist and performer
7:11 PM New York City J.B. Alexander Actor and playwright

INTRO 6

CHAPTER XI
“ŠVEJK GOES WITH THE CHAPLAIN TO CELEBRATE A DRUMHEAD MASS”
7:18 PM New York City Roshi Gregory Abels Retired actor and director and Zen Master
7:25 PM Chicago William Nickell Associate Professor and Chair of the Slavic Department at the University of Chicago
7:32 PM New York City Richard Toth Actor and Writer

CHAPTER XII
“A RELIGIOUS DEBATE”
7:42 PM Heathcote ON, Canada Paul Wilson Translator and Patricia Grant

CHAPTER XIII
“ŠVEJK ADMINISTERS EXTREME UNCTION”
7:57 PM Northhampton, MA Anna VA Polesny Artist
8:06 PM New York City James Monroe Števko Dancer and actor
8:13 PM Saint Louis, MO Lynn Be Actor
8:21 PM New York City Mick O’Brien Actor

INTRO 7

CHAPTER XIV
“ŠVEJK BATMAN TO LIEUTENANT LUKÁŠ”
8:34 PM New York City Jaci de Villiers Director, Playwright and Actor and Gys de Villiers Actor, Playwright and Director
8:46 PM New York City Tom Dula Accountant
8:55 PM Austin, TX Christian Hilchey Lecturer in Czech at the University of Texas at Austin
9:03 PM New York City Lisa Arrindell Actor and acting instructor
9:12 PM New York City T. D. White Actor and Filmmaker
9:19 PM New York City Edward Einhorn Artistic Director, Untitled Theater Company No. 61
9:29 PM New York City Katarina Vizina Actor and singer
9:37 PM Chicago Irena Cajková “Instructional Professor in Czech at the University of Chicago, Pierce Pramuka and Meg Doucette Students of Czech at the University of Chicago

INTRO 8

9:53 PM San Diego Markéta Hancová Music professor, translator and blogger
10:02 PM Los Angeles Eric Volkman Writer
10:09 PM New York City Véronique Firkušný Translator and Czech diction coach

CHAPTER XV
“CATASTROPHE”
10:15 PM Los Angeles Jaroslav Olša, Jr. Czech Consul General
10:24 PM New York City Ben Watts Actor
10:35 PM New York City Alex Zucker Translator

“EPILOG”
10:47 PM New York City Chris Harwood Lecturer in Czech at Columbia University

THE END

Wednesday, April 7 at 7 pm (EST)

Antonin Raymond, a Czech-American architect who helped rebuild Japan after WWII
A Book Talk by Helena Capkova, PhD

Dr. Capkova will present her new book about Antonin Raymond (1888 – 1976), a Czech-American architect who helped rebuild Japan after WWII, as seen through the lens of his friends and collaborators, his way of working, and reasons for his success in post-war Japan.

REGISTER on Eventbrite to receive the Zoom link.

Suggested donation $5 or more.

ANTONIN RAYMOND (Reimann) was born in Kladno, Czechoslovakia, as one of the Jewish merchant’s six children. He came to the USA in 1910. He lived and worked in New York City, Tokyo, Japan, and New Hope, PA, from the 1910s through the mid-1970s. During the First World War, Raymond worked as an intelligence officer with the Masaryk Group. In the 1920s, he served as the Honorary Consul of Czechoslovakia in Japan. In 1928, he was awarded the White Lion IV Order for his excellent help to compatriots. As a young architect, he worked on some of the most extraordinary buildings of the first quarter of that century, including Cass Gilbert’s Woolworth Building in New York City and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. Antonin and his wife and creative partner Noémi Pernessin introduced modern architecture and design to Japan and India, creating over 300 built works over their 50-year practice. By 1938, with war looming both in Europe and in Asia, the Raymonds returned to the United States, first in New York, and then to a farm in New Hope, Pennsylvania. The farm and studio became a working/teaching atelier, where apprentices would work in the studio and on the farm. You can visit the Raymond Farm Center in New Hope, PA

In 1945, Raymond opened a studio in New York City with his compatriot architect Ladislav Leland Rado (1909–1993). The Raymonds returned to Japan in 1948 where Antonin was a member of General MacArthur’s staff during the post-war reconstruction of Japan. In 1956 he was awarded an honorary medal by the American Institute of Architects, and in 1964 he received the Order of the Rising Sun from the Japanese government. An architectural firm bearing his name still operates in Japan.

HELENA CAPKOVÁ, PhD, is a Czech Tokyo/Kyoto-based curator, researcher, and art history professor at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto. She studied transnational visual culture and Japanese studies in Prague and London. As a PhD candidate, she collaborated on international and interdisciplinary research projects such as Forgotten Japonisme (2007-2010) and later Enchanted Modernities: Theosophy, Modernism, and the Arts, c.1875-1960 (2013-2015). Since 2010, she has published and lectured extensively about the specific nature of Japanese modernism and avant-garde that she considers as an inherent part of art history, traditionally perceived as Western. Her publications on this topic include “Believe in socialism … “: Architect Bedrich Feuerstein and His Perspective on Modern Japan and Architecture (2016) and “Careless Shell”– Transnational exploration of Czechoslovak and Japanese Surrealisme (2015). In 2017, she designed a series about architect Antonin Raymond at the Tokyo Czech Center. The successful series lead to the book Antonín Raymond in Japan (1948–1976), which she edited with architect K. Kitazawa, and published in October 2019 in Japanese/ Czech edition. The English version will be published in fall 2021.
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This event is organized by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU), New York Chapter, with the support of the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA).

A popular online mini-series presenting three-minute videos of Czech and Slovak artists and professionals based in New York and their reflections on how the challenging Covid reality affected their work and projects. This third edition will feature three accomplished creative New Yorkers: Tom Kotik, Maria Haršániová and Anna Rathkopf.

Live Q&A will follow the screening of three 3-minute videos.

Moderated by Christopher Harwood and Suzanna Halsey

REGISTER HERE to receive the Zoom link.

Free and open to the public.
Suggested donation $5 or more. Tax-deductible.

This event is organized by Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU), New York Chapter, in collaboration with the Consulate General of the Slovak Republic, and with the support of Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA).

TOM KOTIK, born in Prague to an artistic family, is a Brooklyn-based artist, curator and musician. He has exhibited at Lesley Heller Workspace (NYC), Fundacio Juan Miro (Barcelona), Kostka Gallery (Prague) and The House of Arts (Brno). Since 2013, Tom has been a Curator at Large for Arts Brookfield in New York organizing exhibitions of emerging artists in New York and Los Angeles. He received his MFA from Hunter College in 2004 and has been a resident artist at Meet Factory (Prague), Art OMI, Yaddo, LMCC Workspace Program and the AIM Program at the Bronx Museum of Art. He uses silence as the starting position of his artworks. Many of his works deal with both the physical aspects of silence and materials from which non-functional replicas of audio equipment generate, as well as socio-political implications of silence itself. Both a practicing sculptor and (rock!) musician, he prefers making silent works that allow the viewers to compose as they observe. Thus sound, silence and form can find true harmony.

MÁRIA HARŠÁNIOVÁ, a writer under the pseudonym Maya Reyes, comes from the small town of Modrá in Slovakia. She earned her Masters of Social Work at St. Elizabeth College in Bratislava. Maria is currently finishing a master’s degree at Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College to obtain her SW license in the USA. She enjoys psychology and is interning as a group facilitator and therapist. Before settling in New York in 2016, she lived in England, Spain, The Netherlands and Cuba. Maria’s novel Exit Havana was published in 2016 by the Motý? publishing house in Slovakia. The story is based on her experience as a breast cancer patient. Maria also enjoys photography and blogging.

ANNA RATHKOPF lived in Prague until 2005 when she met her American husband and moved to New York City. She received her MA in Jewish Studies from Charles University in Prague. Her love for reading and photography led her naturally to blogging. In her Czech blog Mama za vodou, she wittingly describes her expat life in her Brooklyn bilingual household. With her photographer husband, she formed a photography company. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 37, they decided to create a photo project called HER2 to raise awareness about the possibility of cancer in people under 40 and the importance of relationships and love during adversity. The photos documenting Anna’s journey to her recovery were published in several publications and are part of the Susan G. Komen rebranding campaign. In 2020, the Covid 19 pandemic became a new subject for the team and a new photography project. Community Heroes captures quiet heroes, mostly women, who volunteer to run food distribution centers in their neighborhood for people in need. Photos appeared in several articles and will be part of an exhibition. One of her photos was included in the ICPs exhibition ICP Concerned: Global Images for Global Crisis. Anna is also proud of her new role as a home teacher to her 1st grader, mastering songs about months or days and improving her math skills, as well.