Ulrike Reinhard in Telč¶
Friday 3 July 2026, 16:30 — Opening of Skate Art Exhibition 2026 Saturday 4 July 2026 — Public talk & programme TBC
Venue: Ground floor of Telč Town Hall (Friday) / University Center Telč (Saturday) Friday opening — invited guests only. Saturday — tickets 250 CZK, available online. Details coming soon.
Something rather wonderful is happening¶
Ulrike Reinhard is coming to Telč.
She's coming because she heard about a skate art deck exhibition, a growing community of changemakers, and a skatepark opening in a small UNESCO town in the Czech highlands — 59×19 metres, bowl and street, top-quality concrete. The kind of place many skateboarders dream of. And because the people behind it work in a spirit very close to what she helped build in a village in India called Janwaar.
Who is Ulrike Reinhard¶
Economist, activist, author, catalyst for change.
- Economist from a German elite university
- 9× TEDx talks — NATO, Google, Harvard, MIT
- Founder of the skatepark in Janwaar village, India
- Author of The Janwaar Way and memoir The Nomad (spring 2026)
- Upcoming documentary film about Janwaar
Widow, mother of one. Nomad and world traveller — she has visited more than 100 countries.
Ulrike is not a theorist. She's someone who went into a village without a plan, with two rules, and let the community find its own way.
Her website: https://ulrikereinhard.com/
Janwaar — two rules, ten years of change¶
Madhya Pradesh, India. Castes, feudal system, stagnation. In 2014 Ulrike built a skatepark in the middle of the village. No grand plan. Just two rules:
Rule 1: No school → no skateboarding. Result: school attendance rose by 50%. Children chose education themselves.
Rule 2: Girls first. Result: girls claimed space that had always been denied to them. They crossed caste boundaries. They became leaders — on skateboards and in the community.
From that came The Janwaar Way — nine principles for how to be, when you're changing things.
In April 2020 she left India because of Covid. Since then her visa has been rejected three times. She is not allowed back. No reason was given.
Asha Gond¶
A girl whose future the system had already decided. Today she is a national skateboarding champion, director of Barefoot Skateboarders Org., and the protagonist of the book Skater Girl Asha. A role model for girls across India.
Her story will be part of the talk.
Saturday programme¶
- The story of Janwaar and The Janwaar Way
- Asha Gond and Girl Power in practice
- How to become the change — the changemaker journey
- Connecting to the Czech reality and Skate Club Telč
- Discussion · informal gathering
Full programme TBC.
The connection¶
Skate Club Telč published its principles for the first time in February 2023. #girlpower, equality and finding balance, community involvement and broader cooperation with other clubs.
From the start, Skate Club Telč has drawn inspiration from the change Janwaar brought about. Even though Skate Club Telč grew independently — from the same instinct, the same belief that community is built through practice, not theory.
I've been in contact with Ulrike for several months. She offered her support after seeing photos from the 2025 exhibition, once I assured her that the "Art of Skate 2.0" show this year would be worth it. She sees our collaboration as a meaningful thread between two communities that share the same values.
She's coming to see what the principles look like when they're alive in a different context, a different culture, a different scale.
Come with us to find common ground and change.
The exhibition¶
The Friday opening launches the annual Skate Art Studio exhibition — original artwork on skateboard decks by local and regional artists.
Contact: [email protected] · +420 730 131 779