Are regional museums necessary alongside local authority town museums and county museums, and with what function? MúzeumCafé 40. The state secretariat for culture at the Ministry of Human Resources points to the legal possibility for the functioning of a regional museum, whose collecting area coincides with the administrative area of a large district. The justification for such an institute involves tasks reaching beyond a local museum. Art historian Zoltán Székely, director of […]
“We have to reshape our thinking about museums” Andrea Csapláros, the new director of museums in Szombathely MúzeumCafé 39. author: Éva Marton The Savaria Town Museum with its county responsibilities separated from the former Vas County Museums’ Directorate as a consequence of the latest transformation of the national museum structure. At the time of taking over the museum institutes the new funding authority, the Szombathely municipal government, decided that from May 2013 its single museum, the Iseum […]
“It’s important for me to be aware of, and understand, what’s going on around me” Éva Fisli, historian and museologist, on the Capa exhibition at the National Museum MúzeumCafé 39. author: Judit Jankó There have been many exhibitions about Robert Capa. Everyone is familiar with his stories, with the tempter who was admired by women, the courageous photographer, the friend of Hemingway and Steinbeck, the founder of Magnum. To mark the centenary of his birth, the Hungarian National Museum staged a new exhibition, Robert Capa / The Gambler, […]
From cornfield to museum József Láng, former director of the Petőfi Museum of Literature’s manuscript archive MúzeumCafé 39. author: Emőke Gréczi He is known as the editor of critical editions of Endre Ady’s works and manuscripts, as well as the publisher of other scholarly volumes. In addition to other posts he has held and his years as a librarian, József Láng is primarily known due to his many years spent at the Petőfi Museum of Literature, […]
“Museums are like rearview mirrors” Discussion in Budapest with representatives of Vienna’s Leopold Museum MúzeumCafé 39. author: Kinga Bódi, art historian Last year the Museum of Fine Arts staged a major exhibition with the title Egon Schiele and His Age. On display were works by Schiele (1890-1918) and other renowned artists of turn-of-the-century Vienna. The bulk of the material came from the Leopold Museum in Vienna. After the opening MúzeumCafé spoke to Elizabeth Leopold, widow of […]
A citadel of Hungary’s sacral tourism Collective renaissance on Chapter Hill in Győr MúzeumCafé 39. author: Gellért Rajcsányi In recent years Győr has undergone a revival and its inner core, the ecclesiastical citadel of Chapter Hill, has also redefined itself, in the process revealing its previously partly hidden treasures. While Sopron, Eger and Szentendre have deservedly been citadels of domestic tourism, Győr, with its similarly compact and well-preserved Baroque old town, still lacks […]
István Szőnyi’s home and the ‘Triznya inn’ under the same roof Danube Bend painter’s memorial museum in Zebegény MúzeumCafé 39. author: Nóra Vágvölgyi Busi István Szőnyi lived and worked in a porticoed house on the main street of Zebegény. Only a few people had the opportunity to step into the painter’s home and experience the solitude of his studio, and even fewer were able to see how the artist created his paintings from the first brushstroke to the last. […]
On one side of the divided space Shifts, the new permanent exhibition of the Hungarian National Gallery MúzeumCafé 39. author: Julianna P. Szűcs, art historian Shifts was preceded by Contemporary Collection. Its curator, István Dévényi, precisely perceived the limits of making seen and being able to see. If an institution is founded in 1957, if a collection is initiated after 1974 and is organised in an independent department only in 1983, it not only affects the nature of the catalogued […]
A chance for equitable measures… Accessibility, or can we apply equal standards? MúzeumCafé 39. author: Emese Szoleczky, deputy head of the Documentation Department, Military History Institute and Museum “I know that I and my fellow citizens should be grateful for the special attention and care. After all, I need it. Yet, would you like to be surrounded by so much fuss? There are countries where it is absolutely natural that people with physical disabilities visit public places. In Hungary this is far from […]
Why the distance to the fire service relates to a museum borrowing works of art MúzeumCafé 39. author: Gábor Martos Today it is commonplace for museums planning a temporary exhibition, in addition to displaying items held in their own collections, to borrow material from other museums or private collections. In most cases this involves works of special quality, which are generally rarely seen – or in the case of private collections, perhaps works which have […]