Admiration, denigration and insufficient knowledge Transforming museums of ethnography and anthropology MúzeumCafé 43. author: Zsófia Frazon “I decided to go to Dahlem. … They wanted to exhibit Berlin’s most expressive picture collections together in a new museum in the Tiergarten quarter. Until then, however, you could view them in one of the sections of Dahlem’s extensive museum complex, in a large low building with smoked glass windows, which in style and […]
Renewal of stones which tell a story Issues for a modern lapidarium MúzeumCafé 43. author: Marianna Berényi It can seem that collecting stone carvings, tombstones, sculptures, fragments of monuments and buildings is in vain if visitors barely know where to start when historical stone remains are exhibited together. Museums rarely come to their aid. It’s the standard practice with exhibitions only to indicate the era of the displayed objects and their place […]
Exhibitions in Kőszeg, or a museum in a specific situation within a museum town MúzeumCafé 43. author: Beatrix Basics Kőszeg on Hungary’s western border is rich in listed buildings. Its endowments are outstanding for a town with hardly 12,000 residents and which is not easily reached from Budapest, but then regional connections, including the relative proximity of Vienna and Graz have been more significant for Kőszeg’s history and development. According to its 2013 deed […]
Preparatory work for a new permanent exhibition After many decades, masterpieces of the Fine Arts Museum’s Old Sculpture Collection are again on display MúzeumCafé 43. author: Miriam Szőcs, art historian, head of the Old Sculpture Collection In December 2013, after a gap of 25-30 years, a new permanent exhibition of masterpieces of the Old Sculpture Collection opened in the second-floor halls of Budapest’s Museum of Fine Arts. Permanent exhibitions of the Old Sculpture Collection were traditionally staged independently of paintings from the start of the Fine Arts Museum’s history. In 1896 […]
It could be a museum The Budapest Zoological and Botanical Gardens MúzeumCafé 43. author: Kálmán Varga, historian, monument protection specialist About 18 months ago MúzeumCafé carried an article about whether zoological and botanical gardens in Hungary could at all be considered museums. The answer was that, despite certain similarities in function, zoos cannot be regarded as public collections, the decisive reason being the large difference between the collecting basis of the two types of institutes […]
Are workbooks and task sheets needed for participants in museum education and if so what kind? MúzeumCafé 43. According to Ágnes Kissné Kovács, museum education specialist at the Göcsej Museum, such resources are necessary both for pupils and those organising the sessions, though not for every occasion, theme and age group. Such auxiliary materials and resources are for realising the goals of museum education, for achieving deeper knowledge. Csilla Tóthné Timár-Geng, deputy […]
Purchases, gifts, bequests Despite their difficult financial situation, museums continue to expand their collections MúzeumCafé 43. author: Emőke Gréczi In the course of the 20th century difficult economic and/or political times were often actually a golden era for museums. People compelled to give up their works of art at such times have primarily offered their valuable items to public collections, since generally in times of crisis the market doesn’t function smoothly. World wars, economic […]
“What is left out only affirms the existing” A talk in Budapest with art historian Danièle Devynck, director of the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum, Albi MúzeumCafé 42. author: János Vészi The Graphic Art Collection of Budapest’s Museum of Fine Arts holds 240 works by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. With this quantity as well as its quality it is of international significance. Thus the selection of 170 works that can be still seen until the 24 August is complemented only by five posters loaned by the Albertina, […]
Serving a can of Campbell’s soup elegantly László Hemrik, Head of the Museum Education Department, Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art MúzeumCafé 42. author: Judit Jankó László Hemrik worked as a teacher for ten years before being employed in the museum. His present job involves building a bridge between contemporary art and Hungarian public education, since the latter uses less than it should from the former’s approach. The department he is in charge of interprets museum education widely, thus they welcome […]
“Earnest, professional work in a good atmosphere” Ágota S. Perémi, archaeologist, museologist, new director of the Dezső Laczkó Museum, Veszprém MúzeumCafé 42. author: Éva Marton Following the five-year-period of Gabor Limbacher as director, three people applied for the post – the former director himself, ethnographer Veronica Schweit-zer and Agora S. Perémi, archaeologist, museologist and head of the museum’s Department of Archaeology. Ms Perémi identified the most urgent future tasks for the museum as ensuring internal calm and securing the appropriate […]