3. Cultural and creative sectors
Hungary
Last update: November, 2021
Monuments
Investments and real estate are priority issues for the government in office since 2010. The area of monuments – built heritage – therefore received attention and was subject to restructuring from early on. The National Office of Cultural Heritage – the top institution of monument protection that had existed since 1872 – was dissolved in 2012 and most of the staff, including its officials in the counties, was transferred to the regional government authorities for general administration. The valuable archive containing the registry of tens of thousands of monuments was passed to an institution named the Forster Centre, which existed for four years. Since 2016 this collection has been held at the Hungarian Museum of Architecture and Monument Protection Documentation Centre, owned and supervised by MMA, the Hungarian Academy of Arts.
The ongoing reorganisation of the institutions of monument protection took a new turn by creating the Lechner Knowledge Centre Nonprofit Ltd under the Minister of the Prime Minister's Office. This institution administers the current official tasks in the heritage protection area. (They run the European Heritage Days in Hungary, as well as other events.)
Since 2017, the bulk of the monuments in public ownership, more than 50 listed buildings, have been operated by NÖF Limited (NÖFNational Heritage Protection and Development Non-Profit LTD). Among others, NÖF oversees the National Palace Programme and the National Castle Programme, generously financed by the government, with due attention to their inclusion on the tourism strategy of the country. In this connection the reconstruction of hilltop fortresses is a special focus.
Hungarian achievements in cultural heritage protection are repeatedly acknowledged with EU awards. The restoration of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music and the Museum of Fine Arts received Europa Nostra prizes in the recent past. Several projects received European Heritage Labels, with the Living Heritage of the city of Szentendre being the latest in 2019.
Attention is given to the built heritage of Hungarians living beyond the border. Teleki László Foundation, a private non-profit organisation, with roots in the 1980s, gets regular support from the National Cooperation Fund (Nemzeti Együttműködés Alap) of the government for related projects. The key institution in this remit is the Foundation for the Preservation of the Central European Built Heritage – Közép-európai Épített Örökség Megőrző Alapítvány. At its establishment in 2020, the government endowed it with shares of state owned businesses and several buildings. This includes a magnificent 19th century hotel on the main square of Satu Mare in Romania.
Museums
Preventive archaeological explorations occurring as part of investment projects offered unprecedented opportunities for excavations and subsequent activities especially at the time of a massive programme of motorway construction. Such exercises also produced additional revenues for museums. In 2011, however, conditions took a u-turn, benefiting investors in terms of financial burden and deadlines, which in 2012 were crowned by switching primary responsibility for the entire scope of built heritage, including archaeology, from the Minister of Culture to that of the interior, and later to the Prime Minister's Office. Since 2018, this domain is overseen by the Department of Archaeology of the Deputy State Secretariat for Architecture, Construction and Heritage of the Prime Minister's Office.
EU funds have facilitated the reconstruction of the Hungarian Museum of Natural History (Természettudományi Múzeum). The announcement therefore that the National University of Public Service would be moved to the building caused surprise and concern. The first phase of the adaptation to the new function has taken place – based on additional EU financial support – and now the new university and the museum share the building. The longer-term solution is still up in the air.
Since 2019, with a new director, the Petőfi Literary Museum has become a power centre of Hungarian culture. After a strange sequence of steps, the gigantic Foundation for Hungarian Culture is a kind of annex to it, which has nothing to do with museum policies.
A recent development is the appointment of another cultural policy strongman László L. Simon as General Director of the National Museum in 2021, whose declared mission is to carry out a fusion between the National Museum and the Natural History Museum, and possibly the Museum of Applied Arts.
Entrance to state museums was free for a four-year period, but fees were re-introduced in 2008 after an unsuccessful test period. The museum profession has stated that the loss of box office revenue is not sufficiently compensated by the government.
Hungarikums
A Hungarian speciality is the pyramid of “values”, regulated by a special law since 2012. Towns and villages are encouraged to set up their Committees of Values which select and administer their Repositories of Values. These include buildings, objects, foods, customs, phenomena etc. on a very broad scale. Committees on county level choose items to add to the regional repositories. Parallel to this, values important for the Hungarian people abroad are also collected by seven committees in the neighbouring countries. The top level is the 21-strong national Hungarikum Committee that decides on the repository of Hungarikums. Currently, in September 2021 the list includes 58 items, with strong a contingent of intangible cultural heritage. The collection includes the Hungarian items on the Unesco lists of World Heritage and Intangible Heritage.
Last update: November, 2021
The nationwide network of public libraries operates a strong professional tradition, with coordination and guidance of the Library Institute within the Széchényi National Library. The services of small settlements of less than 5 000 inhabitants are overseen and assured by the county libraries. Local libraries have adapted to the current protocols of European public libraries: they run programmes for the inhabitants, with children a priority and librarians are active on social media and thus pose a challenge to the network of houses of culture. The digital shift of library operations has advanced, profiting also from EU funds. At the same time librarians complain about restricted resources on salaries, running costs and acquisitions.
A burning issue is the location of the National Széchényi Library. Its main building in Buda Castle is increasingly inadequate for its needs but no decision and plans have emerged about the future of this national institution.
The Law on Archives merged the 19 county archives into the structure of the National Archive. This initiative, among others, means that they can be accessed through one common website. Budapest and a few more cities have their own archives. Operations of the libraries have been streamlined and become increasingly more open and user-friendly.
Re-drawing the Canon of National Culture is taking place. Literature is one sphere where conservative and/or nationalist authors of the interwar period are being promoted by the authorities, including in school curricula.
Last update: November, 2021
The performing arts, more specifically theatres, can be considered representative and symptomatic of the cultural policy developments in Hungary. The theatre profession is sharply divided along political lines; the role of a few – or rather one – influential person is symptomatic of the about the patronal character of the society. This is not counterbalanced by the composition of the 24-member National Performing Arts Reconciliation Council, several members of which are delegated by organisations outside the NER halo: its majority, nevertheless, votes in support of the government.
Divisions in the sharing of public theatres in Hungary between the government and the municipality were manifested in 2019 when the opposition won the local government elections (compared to the earlier joint supervision and financing). The formerly approved national showcase of theatres (POSZT – National Theatre Reunion in Pécs) was discontinued, and loyalty appears to bias the distribution of financial resources and distinctions. Independent ensembles, which play an important role in the Hungarian performing arts, are discouraged, especially if they put critical content on stage. On the other side, shows and performers of dubious value are in disproportional favour.
The division has spilled over to the top-level educational institute, the University of Film and Theatre Arts SZFE, which is described at 2.1.
Last update: November, 2021
There is no special strategy and no peculiar developments in this area. Relevant processes in the museum and higher education sectors (especially the exhibitions in the National Gallery and the upgrading of the MOME Moholy Nagy University) have important impact on this area.
Last update: November, 2021
Despite frequent reference to the strategic importance of the creative industries, no coherent strategy of legislation exists. It does not occur in the communication of the State Secretariat for Culture. A Creative Industries Strategy 2020-2030 was presented in November 2020, endorsed by the Ministry for Innovation and Technology, but the document is inaccessible, and no follow-up took place.
Last update: November, 2021
In 2019, the total sales of the book market were estimated at 55.5 billion HUF by the Hungarian Publishers and Booksellers Association, practically the same as a year earlier. In 2020 the preliminary figures suggest some decline but 2021 promises some growth once more. The average number of copies sold per title keeps decreasing and has slipped below 2000 copies.
The book culture of the country has particularly suffered by the cancellation of the International Book Festival and the Book Week. The latter is an open-air event with a hundred years’ tradition; in 2021 it was finally arranged at a rescheduled date.
Table 2: Number of published titles, 1990-2020
| Year | Number of titles | Of which textbooks | Million copies | Of which textbooks |
| 1990 | 8 322 | 1 230 | 125.7 | 22.2 |
| 2000 | 9 592 | 1 595 | 36.9 | 11.1 |
| 2010 | 12 997 | 2 135 | 34.4 | 11.8 |
| 2019 | 13 901 | 2 434 | 31.7 | 9.6 |
| 2020 | 14 694 | 2 115 | 28.0 | 10.3 |
Source: Central Statistical Office.
Despite some growth recorded in the past couple of years, sales revenues of digital books are about 2% of the total turnover in Hungary.
From a cultural point of view, the continuous shrinking of the print runs of printed quality magazines is deplorable. They try to survive by running website versions or transferring entirely to the internet.
Last update: November, 2021
Most portals, including the ones with important cultural content, are gradually shifting toward various payment models.
Last update: November, 2021
The music branch suffered the most from the pandemic. For rock groups, festivals are the main sort of revenue, before ad hoc and club concerts, broadcasts, streaming or recorded music.
Table 3: Sales of recorded music, 2018-2020
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |
| Physical sales (vinyl, cds etc.) | 1.43 | 1.45 | 1.31 |
| Digital sales (streaming, downloads etc.) | 2.15 | 2.96 | 4.15 |
Source: https://www.mahasz.hu/piaci_adatok
Table 4: Composition of digital sales in 2020
| Digital Sales | International | Domestic | Classical | Not musical content | Total |
| Single | 61% | 37% | 1% | 0% | 100% |
| Album | 54% | 23% | 14% | 10% | 100% |
| Video | 14% | 31% | 56% | 0% | 100% |
| All downloads | 54% | 32% | 11% | 4% | 100% |
| Digital content | |||||
| Mobile phone | 59% | 41% | 0% | 0% | 100% |
| Subscription audio | 83% | 16% | 1% | 0% | 100% |
| Advertisement based | 84% | 15% | 1% | 0% | 100% |
| Video | 45% | 53% | 1% | 1% | 100% |
| All streaming | 74% | 25% | 1% | 0% | 100% |
| All digital sales | 73% | 25% | 1% | 0% | 100% |
Source: https://www.mahasz.hu/piaci_adatok
Classical music occupies a strong position in cultural policies. 16 symphony orchestras receive regular public support. Care is given to the condition of national and local concert halls and over 3000 pianos of orchestras, concert halls and music schools have been restored recently from public funds.
The House of Hungarian Music in Budapest City Park is soon to open in a futuristic building.
Last update: November, 2021
There are no specific policies that promote design or architecture in Hungary.
In Budapest, two non-profit centres run very rich programmes and have an important impact on contemporary architecture: one is KÉK– Contemporary Architecture Centre, the other FUGA – Budapest Centre of Architecture.
The Hungarian Museum of Architecture was established in 1968 and the scope of its collection encompasses materials related to architecture and architectural history. It has no permanent building and currently exists in combination with the Monument Protection Documentation Centre, and is maintained by MMA, the Hungarian Academy of Arts.
Last update: November, 2021
Tourism is one of the top priorities of the current government. The Hungarian Tourism Agency disposes of sizeable funds, with subsidised investments in accommodation ranging from luxury hotels to rural tourism. High level sports events like the 2017 World Aquatics Championships or UEFA Euro 2020, and events like the International Eucharistic Concerts and a Hunting and Nature Exhibition (both in 2021) absorb billions of HUF. Until 2020 – before the capital was taken over by the opposition – the Budapest Spring and Autumn Festivals had a separate line in the central budget, and the Sziget Rock Festival (and its dependent festivals in the countryside) were considered gems of the tourism offer. Still, no concept or strategy has been created on cultural tourism, with the word culture missing from the 2016 festival law or its 2021 amendment.
Next to one-dimension festivals of rock, classical music, or theatre, events that combine all these and more (films, circus, literature, debates etc.) and offer an environment of popular festivities are a valuable feature of the Hungarian festival scene – catering for domestic tourists in majority.