National Czech & Slovak Museum leads the way in Corridor's cultural recovery

CZECH & SLOVAK MUSEUM:

CEDAR RAPIDS – The National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library was safe from the threat of rising floodwaters earlier this month.

Located on a lot near its old site, the museum sits on a foundation 11 feet above its original elevation. The museum was relocated to this site in the summer of 2011 -- a decision that proved wise as areas of Cedar Rapids battled rising waters recently.

Watch video: Time-lapse look at the Czech museum move

"We're safe up on the new foundation, but we will continue to look out for our Czech Village and New Bohemia neighbors in Cedar Rapids," an update on the museum's Facebook page stated on May 30.

A day later, the call was put for volunteers to evacuate the Kosek Building, which houses the "Rising Above: The Story of a People and the Flood" exhibit -- an early precaution that proved unnecessary, but understandable given what happened five years ago.

In the summer of 2008, museum supporters were preparing to unveil plans for an expanded facility. Then the flood struck, filling the museum and library with eight feet of water. Instead of focusing on progress, museum staff and volunteers scrambled to save what they could.

All exhibits were destroyed, the collections soaked. Years of records were lost. More than $11 million in damages was recorded.

'Sometimes, you don't realize what you've lost until you have it again,' Gail Naughton, president and CEO of the museum, said.

The museum officially reopened on its new site in July of 2012, with a special exhibit – 'Alphonse Mucha: Inspirations of Art Nouveau' – to mark the occasion. The exhibit closed in December, with work on the museum's permanent exhibit, 'Faces of Freedom: The Czech and Slovak Journey,' starting soon after.

The permanent exhibit opens June 15. It is the museum's first permanent exhibit since the flood, although two temporary exhibit spaces offer plenty to see for visitors.

An exhibit featuring the jewelry of Madeline Albright opened Mother's Day weekend, topped by a visit from the former Secretary of State a week later. A textile display holds court in the museum's second temporary exhibit space. Some of the materials were rescued in the flood, although nothing is displayed to draw attention to items that were restored.

'We treat all the items in our collection alike now,' Naughton said.

In other words, the flood wasn't as an excuse to stop working five years ago. It won't be an excuse now -- or in the future.

'I think a lot of people are really in awe of the recovery of the museum,' Naughton said. 'In a short amount of time, we've been able to come back strong than we were, larger than we were. I think we had a feeling, from the beginning, that we weren't going to come back just as we were because that would have been like letting the flood win.'

Before the flood, the museum was 18,000-square-foot facility. Now, it's a 53,000-square-foot facility. The annual budget has increased from $900,000 to nearly $1.4 million. The staff grew from 12 full-time employees to 19 full-time and six part-time staffers. Even attendance is up, with an average attendance of 60,000 people in 2012 compared to 35,000 in 2008.

Then there's the 2013 National Medal for Museum and Library Service from the Institute of Museum and Library Service, which was presented by First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House on May 8.

'I speak for a lot of people on the board and our core staff when I say it's been an honor to do this,' Naughton said. 'It's truly an honor to bring back an institution like this. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity, a hard fight, but it was worth it.'