MUSEUM

At present, the museum is able to fulfil all its various functions – to acquire and collect objects, conduct scientific research, publish and promote, exhibit and examine objects, educate and guide visitors, and much more. First and foremost, the museum professionally manages the collections pertaining to the town of Lanškroun and the region. Collections are gradually being professionally conserved and restored. Through active purchases and donations, the museum’s collections have been enriched through the inclusion of many outstanding objects. Over the last decade, the museum has built up a collection of nativity scenes (Šilar’s nativity scene carved in wood, to which figures are added every year; Brožek’s paper nativity scene; Králíky nativity scene; a ceramic nativity scene by A. Moserová and more). It has also been given items by the estate of the composer and conductor Jindřich Praveček, medals, coins and sculptures by the academic sculptor Zdeněk Kolářský etc.

From the beginning of 1992 until the end of 2016, the museum organized more than 160 exhibitions on a wide range of subjects: those curated from its own collections, exhibitions of fine art - paintings, sculptures, graphics, decorative arts and crafts, photographs and old postcards, as well as hosting various multidisciplinary exhibitions.

The most notable exhibitions have included those focused on the illustrations of Adolf Born, illustrations by Jiří Anderle, paintings by Zdeněk Sklenář and Karel Franta, sculptures by Olbram Zoubek, exhibitions entitled 19^th Century Painting, Symbolism and Art Nouveau, the World of Native Americans through the Eyes of Parents and Children, Musical Mechanisms, Nativity Scenes, Realm of Puppets, Lanškroun in Old Postcards, Traditional Crafts of the Orlicko and Podorlicko Regions, Hřebeč Dialects, Costumes and so on.

Some of the exhibitions were put on thanks to excellent cooperation with other museums and galleries in the Czech Republic, others owe their thanks to similar institutions in the Slovak Republic (Bratislava, Prievidza), Poland (Klodsko, Dzierzioniow) and Germany (Göppingen). In cooperation with the Lanškroun Primary Art and Music School, we organize an art biennale – an exhibition of pupils' work on a given topic. The museum has held a number of exhibitions to mark the anniversaries of Lanškroun primary and secondary schools. Also very well-attended were the exhibitions of old postcards from the collection of Karel Uhlíř and exhibitions of Lanškroun and regional artists and craftsmen. However, the most successful (according to visitor numbers) was the Christmas exhibition of nativity scenes at the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008, and the subsequent exhibition entitled Collectors of the Lanškroun Area.

The museum has participated in the preparation of important cultural events and helped to hand back history to the town, for example through unveiling monuments to Jan Marek Marci, busts and memorial plaques in honour of Bóža Modrý, Cardinal F. G. Piffl (1994), Ch. P. Erxleben and others. One such successful project was the restoration of the war memorial.

In 1995, the museum, together with the preparatory committee, organized celebrations and an international symposium to honour the 400^th anniversary of the birth of Lanškroun’s native son, Jan Marek Marci. A year later, it was co-organizer of the festivities surrounding the reopening of the Town Hall. It assists the Cultural Centre with other cultural events in the town, such as the Lanškrounská Kopa and the Carnival parade and festival.