Would it be worth establishing a museum quarter in Budapest and if yes, where? MúzeumCafé 18. József Finta, architect: Budapest has grown beyond its railway stations and consequently the tracks penetrate the city fabric like a rough knife. The case of Theresa Town and the Western Railway Station is perhaps the most tragic – the area is becoming slum-like and is undeserving for the city centre. Unification of the two districts […]
A hero of our time: the digital media director museums, digital networks and community software MúzeumCafé 18. author: Júlia Sonnevend, New York, recipient of the Ernő Kállai Scholarship for Art Historians and Art Critics in 2010 If you attend a conference about the relationship between museum culture and the new media, at the latest during the coffee break you will certainly bump into the homo novus of museums, referred to as the digital media director. The person is usually in his thirties, is often engrossed in his iPhone and follows the […]
Conversation with Attila Ledényi about the arts, patrons and collectors MúzeumCafé 17. author: Erzsébet Eszéki Attila Ledényi and his agency, EDGE Communications, represent an important link between institutions, artists, patrons and collectors. Through special events, publications and broad professional support, EDGE is a pillar of the art world, having participated in such major exhibitions as the Kunsthalle’s Masterpieces – 400 years of French Painting, Modem’s Aba Novák retrospective in Debrecen […]
The general health of objects Chemist and restorer Márta Járó MúzeumCafé 17. author: Roland Borsos Márta Járó, a chemist specialising in metals, is an internationally renowned researcher in the field of metal threads used in the decoration of textiles. For over 30 years she has been involved with popularising the basic principles of restoration in Hungary. Concern about the ‘state of health’ of art objects is not without its precedents. […]
New impetus needed Eszter Tamás, Director of the Schöffer Museum, Kalocsa MúzeumCafé 17. author: Gellért Rajcsányi In the outer part of Szent István Road in the southern Hungarian town of Kalocsa, in a row of one-storey buildings, between a lamp shop and a computer store, there stands an edifice painted in bold colours. The Schöffer Museum is decorated with the characteristic colours – white, black, red and blue – of an […]
Archaeologist, lecturer, writer, artist – and museologist Professor Gyula László was born 100 years ago MúzeumCafé 17. author: István Fodor, archaeologist, Head of the Archaeology Department The centenary of Gyula László’s birth fell on 14 March. He not only enlivened his special academic field in the 30s and 40s, but was also a first-rate lecturer who taught generations of archaeologists. He was the founder of the profession’s scholarly yet popular literature, and his writings and lectures gained many adherents for archaeology. […]
Mikó Castle – changes of fortune A new period for the Csiki Sekler Museum MúzeumCafé 17. author: Ernő P. Szabó The exhibition Egyptian Art at the Time of the Pharaohs comprising items held by the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts was to close on 7 February, but due to its great popularity was extended. A few years ago the idea of staging such a display in the Csíki Basin in Transylvania might have seemed rather […]
Critical regeneration – financial crisis of Contemporary Arts in Dunaújváros MúzeumCafé 17. author: Marianna Berényi Within a day of its appearance in March, more than 700 people signed an internet petition in support of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA-D) in the town of Dunaújváros. The local authority was to allocate a budget for the institute guaranteeing its functioning for only six months. The so-far almost 1600 signatories include not […]
Gerhard Roth: In Hidden Vienna Stadtmuseum, Vienna MúzeumCafé 17. author: Péter György Gerhard Roth was born in Graz in 1942 and has been living in Vienna for decades. Roth is a significant author writing in German whose works have not yet been translated into Hungarian. Roth’s debut in Hungarian begins with this issue of MúzeumCafé in connection with his exhibition In Hidden Vienna at the Austrian capital’s […]
In praise of Széchenyi – initiatives from below Memorial year for ‘the greatest Hungarian’ MúzeumCafé 17. author: Péter Hamvay Count István Széchenyi, one of Hungary’s leading reformers of the 19th century, died 150 years ago. The greatest message of his life’s work was arguably national unity, yet there has hardly been a historical period or political ideology when attempts have not been made to use him in some way or other for different purposes. […]