Hungary

Last update: November, 2021

The provision of basic cultural supply is a stated component of the cultural policy of the government. Houses of culture are key in this endeavour, both by involving citizens in their activities and by providing venues. Nevertheless, there is no general strategy dedicated to audience development.

Events such as the World Days of Music, the Day of Open Heritage, ICOMOS International Day of Monuments and Sites, the Night of Museums, the Month of Libraries etc., are becoming increasingly vigorous and public subsidies accorded to them is also becoming increasingly well planned. Public relations activity for these events is highly professional and their influence over the public is growing.

Last update: November, 2021

The first columns in the table below testify to the shock that the transition of the regime meant for Hungarian society. As late as a decade after the regime change, in 2000, attendance figures remained much below those of the end of the communist era. By the late 2010s all performance indicators showed signs of robust consolidation. The very high theatre and concert attendance figures also reflect a redefinition of these cultural manifestations which statistics – earlier used to communicate mostly or only the institutionalised high culture instances – are trying to follow. However, much of this momentum has been halted by the Covid pandemic.

Table 9:         Cinema, theatre, and concert statistics, 1990-2019

Source:    Central Statistical Office.
Note:        * From 2008, statistics include independent / alternative theatres, too. Only classical music is included under concerts; from 2008, statistics cover a fuller range than previously.

Library lending shows a regular trend over more than a decade, with a monotonous downward slope that reflects the weakening of the position of printed books.

Table 10:       Library statistics, 1980-2019

Source:    Central Statistical Office.

Table 11:       People who participated in or attended a certain cultural activity during the last 12 months, in Hungary (in % of the population)*

Source:     Special Eurobarometer 399.
*                 Nationally representative and broadly available survey results were last produced in 2009 and the last national survey of time use of the population by the Central Statistical Office dates from 2010. The latest report about the cultural behaviour of Hungarians dates from 2012, produced by Eurobarometer.

Last update: November, 2021

Table 12:       Household cultural expenditure by expenditure purpose, in billion HUF and percentages, 2017-2019

Source:    Central Statistical Office.

Last update: November, 2021

The strength of Hungarian amateur cultural activities lies in the good infrastructure and the network of "művelődési házak" (houses of culture, local community centres or socio-cultural institutions). The political control of the communist system cast a shadow on the network, however the multi-purpose cultural institutions have re-gained their position all over the country after the fall of the old regime. These centres give home to cultural associations and amateur groups in all sectors of culture. Their programmes may be labelled as adult education, social policy, or youth policy and the "művelődési házak" have always been considered part of the cultural sector. In most smaller towns and villages, local cultural policy is almost synonymous with maintaining the houses of culture, absorbing the greater part of the cultural budget.

Table 13:       Statistics of local community culture (houses of culture), 2020

Source:    Central Statistical Office

Until 2016 the activities of the network of houses of culture were coordinated by the National Institute of Public Culture (Nemzeti Művelődési Intézet), a state institute. This function has since been outsourced to a nonprofit limited company of the same name, owned by Lakitelek Népfőiskola Alapítvány, a private foundation.

Cultivating folk culture is traditionally an important function of these institutions. A particular offshoot of this is the grass root phenomenon of "dance houses" from the 1970s, still popular today, where traditional peasant dances are being learned and enjoyed as present-day entertainment.

The Hungarian Heritage House is a national institution founded in 2001 and maintained by the Ministry of Human Resources. It serves as a platform for associations and groups preserving folk culture and citizens to meet through numerous performances and interactive, educative programmes. It also provides further education for cultural managers in the field of folk arts.