Updated Hungarian cultural policy profile

Thanks to our longstanding Compendium expert Péter Inkei the Compendium can present an updated cultural policy profile for Hungary.

Below you can find some highlights of the latest changes and developments of cultural policy in Hungary:

A new Foundation for Hungarian Culture was established in 2021 with sizeable assets and competences. It will finance cultural strategy activities and oversee institutions in its remit.
Arts universities are included in the move to public interest foundations, which some are criticising as a limitation of academic autonomy.
Continued centralisation is a key feature of Hungarian cultural policy.
In July 2021 the annual subsidies of the ‘institutions of cultural strategy’ were raised by 10% and about one billion euros of additional resources for the same purpose will be allocated in the next five years.
A fusion between the National Museum and the Natural History Museum, and possibly the Museum of Applied Arts is on the cards following the appointment of a new director in 2021.
Re-drawing the Canon of National Culture is taking place.
Since January 2021, cultural workers of public cultural institutions are employed on the same footing as elsewhere.
The House of Hungarian Music in Budapest City Park is soon to open in a futuristic building.