Are county museum organisations functioning well, or should they be reorganised?
MúzeumCafé 25.
Ágnes Limbacherné Lengyel, ethnographer, director of the Palóc Museum, Balassagyarmat: The present county museums were established mainly from the 50s to the 70s during the years of socialism. There was another rush to set up museums in the decade after the political changes of 1989. However, institutions which were founded then did not become parts of the county organisations. Financing is a basic component of a functioning institution. Organisations funded by the counties involuntarily – enforced by a need for finance – approximate the first, unipolar county museum model of the period when they were established. In Nógrád County it is a special problem that the original county museum is not the same as the present one, whose foundation was politically dictated during socialism – the directorate was moved to the Labour Movement (today Nógrád History) Museum in Salgótarján in 1970.
Márton Kálnoki-Gyöngyössy, archaeologist, in charge of the Pest County Museums’ Directorate, president of the Association of County Museums: At present the museum organisations operate as unified publicly financed institutions in each county. Following the 1989 political changes significant structural changes began. In some cases the top institution of the county museum organisation, the county museum itself, does not function in the county seat and it has been raised several times with regard to one case that the leading museum of the county organisation should not be the museum in the county capital. Yet town museums funded by the town itself have not achieved better results. The county museum organisations are no longer only exhibition units but also keepers of enormous cultural wealth (some 50% of Hungary’s cultural and art heritage) and scientific bases. The latest proposal would delegate public collections to the county seats. That in the case of Pest county would mean Budapest. Yet in the general opinion of professionals that is not acceptable. We have regarded it necessary to call the decision makers’ attention to preserve the uniformity of the county museum organisations during the reform of local authorities, since that is the only way the cost-effective operation of provincial museology and archaeological heritage protection is possible in Hungary.
László Horváth, in charge of the Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Museums Directorate: Up to the present many different museum systems exist. What was common was that the counties were the funding bodies for their area. County museums have gone through spectacular changes in recent years. Some towns themselves took the initiative in taking over the funding of their museums (Hódmezővásárhely, Tatabánya, Esztergom). Elsewhere the funding counties independently decided about the number of museums they would finance (counties of Békés, Győr-Sopron-Moson, Pest). In Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County the directorate of the eight museums is the local authority’s only institution which covers the county physically. The museums not only exist side by side and the staff working in them are doing the same jobs as others in a nearby town, but they are all members of one organisation. Surely everything could be operated better. I hope that Hungarian museums will have a more productive period, but until that’s achieved it would be a pity to destroy or, so to say, perhaps wobbling yet still alive and functioning system.
Károly Szentkuti, director of the Hanság Museum, Mosonmagyaróvár: Raising this question is very timely since county museum organisations are collapsing one after another, and museums of historically important towns are being closed down or their operation is made impossible with the aim of saving the county system. The problem is not new. We are going through a drastic phase of a long process of decay. In our county the small museums of Csorna and Kapuvár were first downgraded to exhibition spaces, then the nationally renowned István Széchenyi Memorial Museum in Nagycenk lost its independence. There is no longer any expert in Nagycenk who can manage the intellectual resources needed for Széchenyi studies and ensure further Széchenyi research. Reduction in staff numbers, professional tasks not undertaken, the deterioration of buildings, material possessions and storing conditions, as well as cuts to the budget have corroded the ability of the county museum organisation to operate. EU and Hungarian tenders have brought some improvement primarily in the field of museum education and with the modernisation of exhibitions. The deterioration of the provincial museum organisation is due to diminishing resources at the disposal of the funding county authorities. Lacking their own revenues, they have become indebted and to keep functioning significant resources have been withdrawn from their institutions. The so-called county norm from the state covers approximately 30-40% of the museums’ costs. The county, which is legally responsible for its museums, has become unsuitable for performing its tasks. Change in the legal statutes is needed.