When a man is young, he trusts his parents
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Jana Pešková was born on 28 June 1947 in Český Krumlov into the Rosín family of teachers. Both parents joined the Communist Party after the war and were convinced communists until 1968. Until she was fifteen, she trusted her parents and was an obedient daughter of committed communists. The defining experience of her life was her admission to the Secondary School of Arts and Crafts in Bechyně in 1962, where she entered a completely different environment. At the school she met opposition-minded people, most of the students were from Prague. During her studies, she began to think differently than her parents about the communist regime in Czechoslovakia and became involved in the opposition. In May 1968, she obtained a so-called craft permit and opened her first private workshop in Český Krumlov, where she made ceramics. She describes how the locals, including the official places (District National Committee), supported her work and cheered her on. She had her private workshop until the mid-1970s, when she met Petr Pešek, the unpopular conservationist of Český Krumlov. From the moment they started working together on a ceramic model of the town (1977 to 1984) and later living together, she felt the hostility from official places and lost her craft permit. Since the late seventies she has worked freelance. She continued to make ceramics, dabbled in painting - especially watercolour techniques - and explored the possibilities of using ceramics in the field of heritage baking. In 1989 she became one of the first members of the Civic Forum in Český Krumlov and actively participated in the Velvet Revolution. In the 1990s, she was at the foundation of the St. Agnes Secondary School of Arts and Crafts. In 2024 she lived with her husband Petr Pešek in Český Krumlov.
