Look what’s happening at the Czech Heritage Museum & Genealogy Center!

New Exhibit! Moravian Glory

We’ve just installed a new temporary exhibit on loan to us from the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library! Please come out to the opening reception from 4 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 30. Moravian Glory is the story of one Czech woman’s life, told in the metaphor of four seasons. It will be on display until October 1.

On Friday, July 22, Cuiyun Dillon, below, who was visiting Temple for a week from Florida, toured Museum and the new exhibit. She is originally from Guangzhou, China.

Kenneth and Jeanette Driska

Kenneth and Jeannette Driska stand with the pie cabinet they recently restored for the new gift shop coming to the Czech Heritage Museum. The Driskas are retired, so they make and sell wooden gifts and toys at local weekend markets. We sell their wooden signs, including Czech and Texas flags in the Museum. They also play Taroks with us twice a month on Tuesday nights. Kenneth and Jeannette gave us more than 40 volunteer hours on the project. We first thought all it needed was a coat of paint, but it took several coats to finally cover the old paint and along the way, Kenneth restored broken bits, filled cracks, replaced and cleaned hardware and gave it new screening! Volunteer hours are valuable to us because sometimes they will count as in-kind funding for matching grants. Let us know if you’d like to volunteer!

Temple Community Historic Treasures Visual Art Exhibit

opening night event 4:30 - 6 pm Friday, May 20

May is National Preservation Month and every year the Czech Heritage Museum & Genealogy Center hosts the Temple Community Historic Treasures Visual Art Exhibit of contest entries and winners.

National Preservation Month serves to draw attention to the importance of preserving historic buildings. The exhibit will also be displayed at the Temple Railroad & Heritage Museum and the Bell County Museum.

Many thanks to David Stone at OurTownTemple.com for the great article and images!

Temple Treasures!

Contest entries depicted historical Temple buildings.

May 20

James Fertsch of Extreme Clean presents prize money for the Temple Community Treasures Visual Arts Contest winners. James, at far left, is shown with the winners present at a reception Friday night at the Czech Heritage Museum & Genealogy Center. Also in the photo are (left to right holding their artwork) Melanie Stokes, Kurt Ritterpusch, David Clemons and Seth Sysum. Two photo winners — Annie O’Leary and Michael Maly, were not present. David Stone photos

By DAVID STONE, Our Town Temple

The winners of the Temple Community Treasures Visual Arts contests were announced Friday during reception at the Czech Heritage Museum.

This year, two contests were held for photographs and paintings that feature historic Temple buildings. The contest in held in conjunction with National Preservation Month.

This year, 30 photographs and seven paintings were entered in the contests and they will be part of a traveling exhibit that will be displayed at local museums. The exhibit will be on display at the Czech Heritage Museum through June, at the Bell County Museum in Belton during July and August, then at the Temple Railroad & Heritage Museum in September.

During Friday’s reception, winners received ribbons and cash rewards made possible through the generosity of James Fertsch of Extreme Clean in Downtown Temple. The first-place winners in both contests will receive $300, second-place winners will take home $200 cash, and third-place will get $100.

First-place in the photo contest was Seth Sysum with a photo of a Downtown building. Second-place went to Annie O’Leary and third-place was won by Michael Maly.

In the painting contest, the first-place winner was Kurt Ritterpusch, second was David Clemons and third was Melanie Stokes.

Earl Nottingham, an award-winning photographer for Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine, was recognized during the reception.

About 75 people attended the reception and most took time to walk through the many museum exhibits.

Seth Sysum won first place in the photo category. The photo is of the Texell Credit Union in Downtown Temple.

Kurt Ritterpusch won first place in the painting category.

David Clemons won second place in the painting division.

Melanie Stokes was the third-place winner in painting.

The contest in previous years:

Historic Preservation League of Temple visits the Czech Heritage Museum

The Historic Preservation League of Temple visited the Czech Heritage Museum & Genealogy Center for a private gathering of food and fun after hours. The HPL Temple works to protect the history and heritage of the properties located in the Temple Historic District. This officially designated historic district is located only a few blocks west of the Museum.

The Antique Glass Club

Vanny Bolsins shows her “End-of-Day Glass” vase at the Czech Heritage Museum during a recent meeting of the Antique Glass Club.

The Antique Glass Club held a lunch meeting on Thursday, March 24 at the Czech Heritage Museum & Genealogy Center. Susan Chandler gave a program on “end of the day glass.” A collection of antique Czech art glass and pottery recently donated to the Museum by Jean Blaha-Davis includes excellent examples of this genre.

In 2018, the club donated two new beautiful cherry wood and glass curio display cabinets to the Museum for our collection of antique Czech boudoir glass. They’ve held meetings and luncheons here over the years. It’s always fun to have this lively group in the Museum!

The Kadlecek-Hewitt Family

The Kadlecek-Hewitt Family visited the Czech Heritage Museum & Genealogy Center on March 17, visiting from north Texas. Sheri Kadlecek called her father in Missouri to ask about their family’s village of origin. He is the family genealogist and has compliled a large book from his extensive research. The Kadlecek family are from the Bohemia region of the Czech Republic. The children were excellent tourists, taking lots of photos and telling their grandparents all about the Museum.

Karl Kuykendall

Karl Kuykendall of Temple came to the Czech Heritage Museum & Genealogy Center library on March 18, needing an image of the old Frelsburg Catholic church. We were able to find one for him in the Naše Déjiny (Our History), the 1939 book published by Nasinec Publishing Company in Granger, Texas. Karl writes books for the Catholic Diocese of Austin. He is currently writing a history of Catholic churches in Central Texas. From the research findings he described to us, his book sounds like not only a thorough resource, but also an interesting page-turner!

Czech Lullibies, Love Songs and Campfire Songs

On Saturday, March 19, Michaela Denazen sang a sampling of Czech lullibies and love songs at Czech Heritage Museum & Genealogy Center. We’re looking for musicians willing to accompany her to record and perform this music. We need two violinists, one viola and one upright base. Contact Susan at CzechHeritageMuseum@gmail.com for the samplings that we recorded on Saturday if you are interested in this project. Michaela sang with a Czech folkoloric group in Czech Republic and majored in music. She currently sings with the Temple College choir.

The Frank Dvořák Collection

Suzanne Dvorak of Austin met Susan Chandler in the Museum on Sunday, March 6 in order to donate artifacts belonging to her grandfather, Frank Dvorak. Frank Dvorak painted the large mural of Prague Castle which is installed in the entryway of SPJST Lodge 88, Houston. She brought a portrait of Mr. Dvorak wearing a uniform that the family could not identify. Susan recognized it as a Czech Legion uniform, French division. Susanne Dvorak said that her grandfather would talk about being in the French Foreign Legion, fighting for the Czechs, but it was hard to understand the connection. We are very grateful for these important and unique artifacts!

Bell County Retired School Employees Association

On Monday, March 7, the Bell County Retired School Employees Association came for a scheduled tour led by Susan. The group was a delight to have in the museum and as one would expect, asked excellent questions!

Czech Film Night and Matinee at The Beltonian Theatre

Tuesday, March 8 was Czech Film Night & Matinee, our monthly outreach program held at the historic Beltonian Theatre, about 10 minutes away on the courthouse square in Belton. Each month, Susan leads a short discussion about the film, including contextual information and personal experiences of audience members. This month, the film was Power of the Powerless, a documentary on Václav Havel’s famous essay warning of “post-totalitarianism,” a term he coined. Written in 1978, still under communism, he was concerned that people were so adapted to communism that they could eventually create a kind of totalitarianism that was not overt, but self-imposed and subtle.  

John Hillman

On Wednesday, March 9, John Hillman of Waco donated a new book to our library, Czech Songs in Texas by Frances Barton and John K. Novak. In this image, left to right is John Hillman and Kenny Lange. John is a great friend of the Museum. We were thrilled to be mentioned on the acknowledgment page! A few years ago, when the authors were conducting research for this book, Frances Barton spent a day in the Czech Heritage Museum. Susan helped her find old, Czech, English and out-of-print books in our library that she found helpful. What an excellent finished product!

Downtown Temple Main Street Advisory Board

The Main Street Organizational Committee Meeting meets monthly in the Czech Heritage Museum & Genealogy Center on the second Tuesdays at 8:30 a.m. Anyone interested in improving the Temple downtown central business district is welcome. Susan chairs this committee and reports monthly at the Downtown Temple Main Street Advisory Board meeting. She aslo attends the other committee meetings, including the Promotional Committee meeting when each downtown entity announces upcoming events and activities.

American Heritage Girls Troup 1274

A delightful group of girls and their two leaders visited the museum on Thursday, March 10. American Heritage Girls Troup 1274 were working on their world culture badge. These girls had a good depth of knowledge and great insights!

Sharon Clements

Also on Thursday, March 10, Sharon Clements of Bryan, Texas came in to spend several hours researching her family history in our library. The extensive work of Albert Blaha, Leo Baca and others who participated in those projects amaze us every time we use these excellent genealogical resources! We are grateful to those who combed through public records to parse out Czech names. These were done in those Texas counties which have large enclaves of the descendants of Czech immigrants. What an astounding project. These reference books are the heart of our genealogical library here at the Czech Heritage Museum and Genealogy Center!

Michelle Skroch

On Friday, March 11, Michelle Skroch came in to help with collections management. She is a graduate student at Baylor University in museum studies. Michelle has been coming in most Fridays since last fall. She is working on cataloguing a collection of 80 pieces of Czech glass donated to the Czech Heritage Museum & Genealogy Center recently by Czech glass collector and expert Jean Blaha-Davis.

Michaela Denazen

On Saturday, March 12, volunteer Michaela Denazen worked in the museum on translating WWI-era family letters between Moravia and Texas. Michaela grew up in the Czech Republic; her family still lives in eastern Bohemia. In 2018-2019, Michaela and Susan attended the language classes held at the SPJST Assisted Living home in Taylor, Texas. Michaela would bring her guitar and sing the old Czech songs with the attendees. She was delighted to find out these songs were sung here in Texas and enjoyed speaking in Czech with anyone who would. A few times, her mother came with us when she was visiting from Moravia and the party was even more lively!

Tanglefoot Brewing

When brewer Andy Martinec visited the Czech Heritage Museum & Genealogy Center recently, he invited us to visit Tanglefoot Brewing located at 25th Street and Avenue M in Temple, Texas. The cozy pub is carved out of one end of Al’s Bar-B-Q Barn. Why Al’s? Well, Al’s has been owned and operated by Andy’s family for generations. Andy is a professional brewer in Austin, but decided to brew Czech lagers, Pilsen-style and sell them here. He uses special Czech imported horizantal taps, which allow him to offer more ways to create beer foams. In the pub, look for the LP album cover pinned to the wall – that will tell you which polka band is playing on the loud speaker! Tanglefoot Brewing is open Friday and Saturday afternoons, closing at 5 p.m. You might hear some conversations about Czech trivia while you’re there!

Learn to play Taroks! 

Our twice-monthly The Taroks Group, (every first and third Tuesday), meets to play for fun and to improve our Tarok skills! Taroks is a very old card game (1400s) that pre-dates Bridge. It even has its own unique card deck and design.

Jimmy and Carolyn Coufal are consistent tournament winners and will teach anyone to play from the level of “Never Heard of It” to winning tournaments themselves. On Tuesday, March 15, (fourth photo in the slide show) we celebrated Jimmy’s win at a recent tournament in Halletsville and also Carolyn’s birthday! Sometimes there are a few more than a multiple of four people to fill tables. We filled two tables plus extras this night. That’s a great opportunity to rotate around, help out another player or watch over the shoulder of a more experienced player! Even though the pandemic affected our group attendance, we are coming back and growing! Join us! It’s free! 

https://youtu.be/t94xnZl6tq8