The City of Příbram Award 2021

Hana Ročňáková, Josef Velfl and Antonín Dvořák III were awarded the City of Příbram Prize.

On Saturday 5 June, the City of Příbram Awards were presented during the ‘Operetta – Gala’ concert as part of the Antonín Dvořák Music Festival. The city recognises the work of those who have made a significant contribution to the development of Příbram and thus helped to promote its good name. The recipients are Hana Ročňáková, Josef Velfl and, posthumously, Antonín Dvořák III (the award was accepted by his son, Petr Dvořák). Příbram will continue to honour individuals who, through their work, are changing the face of the town for the better. 

Hana Ročňáková

Hana Ročňáková was born in 1954 in Příbram. After leaving grammar school, she studied cultural and educational work and, in 1979, joined the District (now the Mining) Museum in Příbram, where, over the course of the following thirteen years, she organised dozens of art and specialist museum exhibitions and helped to develop new displays.

She moved to the Municipal Gallery in 1993. In the late 1990s, she completed postgraduate studies in art history at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. In 2004, when the organisation was granted legal status, she was appointed director of the František Drtikol Gallery following a successful selection process. She played a part in creating a permanent exhibition dedicated to the life and work of the famous photographer and Příbram native after whom the gallery is named.

As a curator, she has organised around 100 art exhibitions there and collaborated with external curators and leading Czech collecting institutions, galleries and museums on the preparation of dozens more. Each year, she expanded the gallery’s annual exhibition programme to include a wide range of cultural events, concerts, lectures, workshops and chamber performances. For several years, she also organised themed exhibitions, held in collaboration with the A. Dvořák Theatre in Příbram on its premises.

She maintained a long-standing collaboration with the Jan Drda Library and the Primary School of the Arts on T. G. Masaryk Square. Her forty-year career in Příbram’s cultural life came to an end at the close of 2019.

Josef Velfl

Josef Velfl was born in 1956 in Rakovník, but when he was one year old, his family moved to Příbram. He has worked at the Příbram Museum since completing his university studies in 1979, when he was offered the post of historian there. From the very beginning, he has specialised in the history of the Příbram region in the 19th and 20th centuries, the history of mining and metallurgy, mining monuments, mining museums, wartime events and the resistance movement in the region. In 1994, he became the museum’s director. Until 2020, he was also an external collaborator with the Museum of the Third Resistance in Příbram. He works with the Czech Ministry of Culture on the Research Council. He lectures on the history of mining and technology at the College of European and Regional Studies and also collaborated with the Institute of Contemporary History at the Czech Academy of Sciences (1990–1995).

Between 1990 and 1992, he served as the Czechoslovak Federal Government’s Commissioner for the Analysis of Events from 1967 to 1970. In the field of publishing, he represents the Příbram Mining Museum on several editorial boards. For many years, he has been collaborating with the Czech Union of Freedom Fighters and the Czechoslovak Legionnaires’ Association – particularly in the cataloguing of monuments to the resistance movement.
He has contributed as a scriptwriter to the preparation of several exhibitions both at home and abroad. He is the author or co-author of more than 300 articles and specialist studies, as well as some twenty books published both in the Czech Republic and abroad. He is also the creator of the winning project in the national museum competition – Gloria musaealis 2003 – focused on the preservation and subsequent utilisation of technical heritage sites: the Vojtěch Mine and the Anna Water Adit.

As a co-author, he contributed to the project to preserve and open the Drkolnov Mine Water Wheel and other mining heritage sites to the public. On the occasion of the celebrations marking 800 years since the first written mention of Příbram, he received the Silver Commemorative Medal from the town; he is also the recipient of a number of other honours both in the Czech Republic and abroad.

Antonín Dvořák III.

Antonín Dvořák III was born in 1929 in Příbram. Between 1939 and 1947, he attended grammar school. He then studied for one year at the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague. From 1948, he worked at the local uranium mines. Whilst working underground, he completed a distance-learning course at a technical college specialising in geology. In the late 1960s, he took up a post as an investor with the district roads authority. In the 1980s, he also worked as an inspector for the district national committee.

Throughout his life, which he spent in his hometown of Příbram, he devoted himself to preserving the legacy of his grandfather, the composer Antonín Dvořák. He then devoted himself fully to cultural activities following the Velvet Revolution in 1989, by which time he had already retired. Cultural events such as the A. Dvořák Music Festival in Příbram, Dvořák’s Prague, the Karlovy Vary International Singing Competition and the A. Dvořák International Composition Competition are all linked, to a greater or lesser extent, to his work and support. He also took full care of the Rusalka Villa in Vysoká near Příbram, where he enjoyed welcoming many music-loving guests.

Antonín Dvořák III was awarded this honour precisely for his selfless, long-standing dedication to preserving the legacy and promoting the work of Antonín Dvořák, with an emphasis on his connection to the Příbram region. Antonín Dvořák III’s influence shaped many people’s relationship with the music of this world-renowned composer and contributed to the creation of internationally recognised projects. Antonín Dvořák III passed away on 28 May 2017.

Photo: Martin Andrle