On 9 June 2023, the innovative multimedia tour of the Brewery Museum was officially opened. The project called "The Dalešice Brewery - a place of meeting, learning and reviving traditions and crafts" has been implemented since June 2022 in cooperation with the Icelandic partner "The Technical Museum in Akureyri" thanks to the support of the EEA and Norway Grants. The opening ceremony was attended by representatives of the Dalešice Brewery, regional and local information centres, museums, historians, journalists and the general public.
The opening speech was given by the Brewery director, architect Mr. Tichý, who recalled the beginnings of the restored brewery and thanked the EEA and Norway donors for their financial support that allowed to build this innovative multimedia tour. Then, the representative of the project implementation team provided general information on the respective EEA and Norway Grants´ call for proposals (Culture - Innovative Use of Movable and Immovable Cultural Heritage). The call intended to support projects that focus also on building local identity and making cultural heritage accessible unconventionally and attractively.
The opening of the innovative tour and presentation of the multimedia content to visitors, taking place 18 months after the submission of the project application, represents one of the main project achievements and outputs. In addition, since the beginning of the project implementation, a number of events have been organised to promote local community encounters, offering visitors non-traditional leisure activities and festivities. These were made possible thanks to the involvement of Czech and Icelandic project partners, namely the “DUSOT” theatre association and "The Technical Museum in Akureyri". In the coming months, until March 2024, the Dalešice Brewery will continue to organise events contributing to bringing together local people and visitors to enjoy common activities in the brewery premises.
The programme of opening continued with a scene performed by actors from the theatre association, inspired by the famous Czech movie “Postřižiny” from the 1980s. The performance indirectly involved a distinguished guest, Mr. Karel Ksander, Director of the National Technical Museum in Prague, who symbolically cut the ceremonial ribbon at the entrance to the museum and gave a short speech.
The first tour after the official opening was attended by guests and journalists. The guests were presented with the entire tour, had the opportunity to learn information about beer production and see the innovative exhibition of the original historical equipment of the brewery. Throughout the tour, a "virtual guide" stylized into the figure of a historical brewer, partially accompanied by a historical engineer, spoke to visitors through a projection. Multimedia animation of the expositions and rooms, together with the original tour concept offers a unique mix of information and entertainment, making the tour unforgettable.
In total, five tours took place during the afternoon. The reactions and impressions of the professional and general public were very positive. The opening ceremony was also attended by old-timers who have experienced the process of transformation of the brewery over the decades. They could compare different evolution phases of the museum in light of the innovative tour, which brought the brewery to the 21st century thanks to multimedia technology, though not losing the spirit of the historical cultural monument.