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| Ferenc Csák |
The position of Hungary's existing 19 cultural institutes abroad as well as its seven cultural diplomats is stable, even though their combined budgets of about HUF 2 billion were cut by HUF 220 million in 2009, Csák said. The cuts affected payroll costs as well as expenditures on programmes, with the exception of the HUF 700 million budget for Extremely Hungary, the Hungarian cultural season in New York and Washington.
Japan is another country in which the profile of Hungarian culture is being raised this year. At the start of the year, the Honvéd Dance Ensemble and the musical group Romafeszt toured the country, performing at 36 venues to a combined audience of 30,000. At the beginning of September, several Hungarian musical groups will perform in Tokyo, among them the folk group Kaláka, the jazz singer Veronika Harcsa and the pianist Endre Hegedüs. The dancer Pál Frenák will give a solo performance, and the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest will bring a travelling exhibition to the Japanese city. The Liszt Academy Orchestra will perform in Japan after a concert in Seoul on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Korean and Hungary.
The Ministry of Education and Culture is supporting the show of contemporary Hungarian artists with HUF 83 million, but the Japanese are providing three times that amount, said Csák.
The ministry plans no further cuts in the budgets of Hungary's culture institutes abroad, said Csák. The renovation of the Hungarian Institute in Paris will continue, he added. Preparations have already been made for the renovation of the interior, and there are enough financial resources for the work to start in 2010.
A modernisation programme started at the institutes in 2004, Csák explained. In addition to Tallinn, Brussels and New York, a branch of Bucharest's Hungarian culture institute opened in the Romanian city of Sfantu Gheorghe. The Collegium Hungaricum in Berlin moved into a new building, and the Hungarian Academy in Rome was renovated from top to bottom.
Answering a question, Csák said that the mandate of Zoltán Fónagy, director of the Collegium Hungaricum in Vienna, would expire on December 31 and the ministry would soon call a tender so the post could be filled by January 1, 2010. Applications for the post of cultural diplomat in Shanghai are being accepted until July 30, he added. A person for the Shanghai post will be decided on by the end of August, with the participation of the Foreign Ministry as the diplomat will work under Hungary's ambassador to China.
There is no money for expanding Hungary's network of cultural diplomats, but embassy staff are representing the country in cultural matters, Csák said.
The series of Hungarian cultural seasons abroad will end with the one in Japan on December 30 because of general elections in the spring, Csák said.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
Photo: Máté Nándorfi
