Ulrike Reinhard in Telč¶
On July 3rd and 4th 2026, Ulrike Reinhard visited Telč — for the opening of the Skate Art Exhibition at the Town Hall, and a public talk the next morning at the University Center.
She came because she'd heard about a skate art exhibition, a growing community, and a skatepark being built in a small UNESCO town in the Czech highlands — 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.
- 9× TEDx talks — NATO, Google, Harvard, MIT
- Founder of the skatepark in Janwaar village, India
- Author of The Janwaar Way and the memoir The Nomad (2026)
- Subject of an upcoming documentary about Janwaar
She has visited more than 100 countries. She 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.
Janwaar — a village, a skatepark, two rules¶
Madhya Pradesh, India. Castes, feudal structures, stagnation. In 2014 Ulrike built a skatepark in the middle of the village. No grand plan — two rules:
Rule 1: No school → no skateboarding. School attendance rose by 50 %. Children chose education themselves — not because they were forced, but because of skateboarding.
Rule 2: Girls first. Girls claimed space that had always been denied to them, crossed caste boundaries, and became leaders — on skateboards and in the community.
Ten years of visible change. Out of it came The Janwaar Way — nine principles for how to be when you're changing things.
One of the children from those first sessions, Asha Gond, is today 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 was part of the talk.
The connection¶
Skate Club Telč wasn't founded as a copy of Janwaar. It grew independently, from the same instinct — the belief that community is built through practice, not theory. We found the same words only later.
When Ulrike saw photos from our 2025 exhibition, she offered her support and called the thread between the two communities meaningful. Her visit was a chance to see what the same principles look like in a different culture, at a different scale.