The former director of the Ostrava Puppet Theater Jarmila Hájková, the founder and director of the Colors of Ostrava Zlata Holušová, and also Petr Mitáček, who was instrumental in saving historic public transport vehicles, took it from the hands of Mayor Jan Dohnal (Spolu). Professor Josef Jařab, who was the first freely elected rector in post-revolutionary Czechoslovakia at the Palacký University in Olomouc, was awarded in memoriam.
The City of Ostrava Prize is awarded to important personalities who have played a fundamental role in the development of some of the areas of life in the city – social, cultural, sports, scientific, artistic and others. The city has been announcing it since 1996, and has already awarded 43 of these awards.
Hájková, who worked as the director of the puppet theater for more than 30 years, received the award for her outstanding contribution to the development of the city in the area of artistic and cultural development of the city. “She was decisively responsible for its artistic and economic growth as well as its establishment among the most important European scenes of this type,” said municipality spokeswoman Gabriela Pokorná. Hájková also participated in the construction of the theater’s new headquarters, which will stage 650 performances a year and offer an educational program for 15 years.
Holušová received the award for her outstanding contribution to the development of the city in the area of musical and cultural life.
Mitáček received the City of Ostrava Award for his extraordinary contribution to the city in the area of public transport. The awardee is a co-founder and long-time member of the Committee of Friends of Public Transport in Ostrava. “At the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, he was the initiator and co-founder of an association of urban transport enthusiasts, the goal of which was originally to save the historic tram car number 25. In more than 40 years of activity, the association has resulted in a total of 34 rescued historic vehicles in the collection owned by the statutory city of Ostrava . The awardee devoted thousands of volunteer hours to the rescue, maintenance, and presentation drives of these cars, without the right to any remuneration,” said the spokeswoman.
Professor Jařab, who was the recipient of a number of important awards and the laureate of honorary doctorates in the United States and Great Britain, was awarded in memoriam for his extraordinary contribution to the development of the city in the fields of politics, science, culture and sports. He lived in Ostrava for about 20 years and in the 1960s he organized so-called Student Fridays in the city, which were attended by hundreds of young people.
In addition to the City Awards, the council awards the Honorary Citizenship of the Statutory City of Ostrava as the highest form of award. Honorary citizenship of the city was first awarded in 1935 to President TG Masaryk. To date, Honorary Citizenship has been awarded to 71 personalities.
