Today we visited the Kunsthalle “art collection” to learn about how it was created and to connect with Pitt Alumni at the Alumni event. The day started with a lecture from the director and architect on the history of the museum. It used to be a transformer station. It was cleaned to remove heavy metals, chemicals, and oil form the contaminated areas. Original pieces were salvaged such as windows, wooden beams, porcelain, and copper from pipes. I found it interesting that they struck a balance between making sustainable and economical decisions, and looked out for factors including what is best for the art and what would make maintenance accessible in the future. I was also interested in their cultural endeavors, picking artwork that would appeal to a wide range of people while still bringing something new to the table.

I had a lovely time chatting to Ivana at the Alumni event. We talked about changing the world. She said she was excited to mentor and help other people change the world. Zuzana talked about her excitement for upcoming architectural projects. I told them that I was excited to impact as many people as I could.

I also enjoyed talking with Martin, the CFO of CEZ. He had a positive outlook on the future of the company and the suture of clean energy. He said they would be carbon neutral by 2038 at the latest, and some of the machinery from mines would end up in museums. This is crazy to me. To think–technology that we are using now will soon be futile and in a museum.

A few of us headed up to Golden Lane, which was especially magical as the sky was pink, the tourists were gone, and the company was cheerful. We saw the house where Kafka worked and pranced through some gardens. We ended the night watching the Baroque show on the Vltava.