"Our ambition is to show Hungarian culture in the highest-standard venues to an audience of opinion formers in cultural, business and political life," Hiller told Hungarian journalists.
Assessing his visit to the States, Hiller said talks were "decidedly successful and very fruitful."
Hiller spent two days in New York meeting with the most important representatives of the city's cultural life to discuss the possibility of organising a 6- to 10-month Hungarian cultural season in 2009. He also travelled to Washington to extend Hungary's agreement on the Fullbright scholarship programme for another four years. Some HUF 40 million in scholarships are made available to Hungarian scholars each year in the framework of the programme.
Hiller acclaimed the fact that the Hungarian cultural seasons - programmes of events spanning many months in a single country intended to raise the profile of Hungarian culture - are one of the few things in Hungary which transcend politics. And he acknowledged that the cultural seasons were the initiative of the conservative Fidesz government in the early part of the decade.
Hiller reiterated his commitment to active cultural diplomacy, noting that a six-week Hungarian cultural season would take place in the Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Honk Kong in the autumn.
Inventorying the successes of his visit, Hiller said New York's Carnegie Hall was prepared to show the entire spectrum of Hungarian musical arts, from classical to folk, and Hungarian actors would have the chance to perform at Lincoln Center as the result of talks. New York's Morgan Library could organise of a show of renowned prints owned by Budapest's Fine Arts Museum, and an exhibition of never-before-displayed photographs taken in Hungary in the 20s and 30s by the Hungarian-born photographer Robert Capa could be shown at the International Photography Center.
Talks in Washington yielded cooperation agreements with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Katzen Arts Center and the National Gallery of Art. Hiller met with officials of the Smithsonian Institution about Hungary's presence at the museum's folk festival in the summer of 2009, and he arranged a cooperation agreement between the Library of Congress and the National Széchényi Library in Budapest.
