MúzeumCafé Award 2011
Zsolt Gyarmati, Historian, Museologist, Director of the Sekler Museum of Ciuc in Miercurea Ciuc
MúzeumCafé 28.
We are standing in a Transylvanian castle, a museum closed to the public since August 2011 due to renovation. We are here to present the 2011 award of the journal MúzeumCafé to a Hungarian museologist who was selected by the board of trustees for his accomplishments last year.Before that, allow me to say a few words about MúzeumCafé itself, Hungary’s only national printed journal about museums, and the award it has established. The Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest launched MúzeumCafé in 2007. It was based on the joint conception of several Hungarian museum experts and journalists specialising in culture. The journal is now in its sixth year and has reached its 27th issue. Professional interest has been steady and its image and visual appearance have been acknowledged by awards such as last year’s gold medals in three categories of the American Creativity International Awards and the bronze medal of the European Design Awards, also in 2011. When the journal was launched it was the intention of the founders to make MúzeumCafé a forum representing and promoting – in both appearance and content – forward-looking, exemplary and firm ideals for the museums of Hungarian speaking areas. The aim was the same when founding the MúzeumCafé Award. Members of MúzeumCafé’s editorial board participated in the work of the jury making the award this year – László Baán, government commissioner, director of the Museum of Fine Arts; Péter György, aesthetician, university professor, director of ELTE’s Institute of Art Theory and Media Research; Zoltán Rockenbauer, art historian, cultural editor-in-chief of the Media Service Support and Asset Management Fund; and László Török, archaeologist-Egyptologist, full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences; besides them, on behalf of the Department of Culture, Gábor Hatházi, archaeologist-historian, deputy head of Public Collections, Department of the Ministry of National Resources; on behalf of the Hungarian National Committee of ICOM, president Miklós Cseri, ethnographer, director of the Szentendre Open-air Ethnographic Museum; on behalf of AICA Hungary, president József Mélyi, art historian, art critic; on behalf of the editors, Gábor Martos, editor-in-chief and Beatrix Basics, editor, art historian, adviser to the Pest County Museums’ Directorate. In the beginning of January this year the above body of people unanimously voted for Zsolt Gyarmati, director of the Sekler Museum of Ciuc to receive the MúzeumCafé Award 2011. Zsolt Gyarmati was born in Odorheiu Secuiesc in 1970. He graduated from history at the Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca in 1998, then took part in the PhD course at ELTE while he also pursued legal studies at Pázmány Péter University in Budapest for two years. Finally he finished the cultural mediator course at the Education Faculty of ELTE. He has given many presentations at professional conferences, edited volumes of studies and his work Public and Private Spheres in Kolozsvár in Past Times was published in 2006. Zsolt Gyarmati was appointed director of the Sekler Museum of Ciuc in 2003 and since then he has thoroughly changed the museum, which was established in 1930 and has been located in Mikó Castle since 1970. The introduction of his fresh, open approach regarding a museum aiming to serve the public fully has resulted in many highly successful exhibitions. In 2007 Zsolt Gyarmati was presented with the Kivi-Award founded by Transindex, a Hungarian news website in Romania, with the citation: “Because he has achieved something everybody thought would be impossible… Because he gave a strong brand to Miercurea Ciuc and has raised the Sekler Museum of Ciuc to a new standard in terms of infrastructure…” Success achieved since then has led to the project involving the complete renovation of the building housing the museum, which began last year. The jury of the MúzeumCafé Award deemed the achievement leading to the refurbishment as the most exemplary Hungarian museum accomplishment deserving to be followed. The award is presented in March because Ferenc Széchényi’s letter about the foundation was dated in that month. The Sekler Museum of Ciuc has undoubtedly become the flagship of Hungarian museology in Transylvania, demonstrating that exhibitions attracting a large number of visitors can be organised here and that it is possible to maintain long-term visitor interest. Embedded in the fabric of a town, a region and a cultural community speaking the same language, the museum has become an identity-preserving institution. Thus we believe that besides Zsolt Gyarmati the entire staff of the museum and the whole town can be rightly proud of the award. We hope that when the Mikó Castle reopens it will be a cause for the joint celebration of all. According to the jury, Zsolt Gyarmati played a major role in the work that will culminate in that red-letter day for the town, for Transylvania and indeed for the whole of Hungarian museology. Therefore we have resolutely found him worthy of the MúzeumCafé Award 2011.