Méhes said the first half of 2011 was especially exciting for the culture institute as its programmes were parallel with the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. He added that cooperation between the Collegium Hungaricum, Hungary?s other representatives in the Austrian capital, the embassy and the state tourism agency Magyar Turizmus was exemplary.
The culture institute launched a series of programmes that shared the Danube as their common thread in the first half of the year ? when the Danube Strategy was one of the key points of the Hungarian EU presidency ? and continued them in the second half. The Collegium Hungaricum organised exhibitions on cities along the river and the lives of their residents entitled Cities on the River and Danubius Fluvius Pictorum. It also initiated the establishment of the Danube Cultural Cluster.
The Danube also provides the backdrop for the Collegium Hungaricum?s first programme of 2012. Danube Messages will bring together primary school students from Germany, Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine online in January.
The institute wants to introduce the Danube as a cultural theme at this year?s Buch Wien book fair. It aims to establish a permanent ?Danube presence? at the fair by partnering with publishing industry professionals from countries in the Danube region.
Méhes said the European Union?s Danube Strategy offers a good framework for cultural and tourism programmes. ?One can?t expect miracles from it, but one must see opportunity in it,? he added.
The Collegium Hungaricum will soon set up an internet portal to serve the Danube Cultural Cluster. About 50 parties have signaled their interest in participating, including the Esztergom Danube Museum, Vienna?s Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe (IDM), the European Danube Academy of Ulm and the Workgroup of Danube Countries (ARGE Donauländer). Support for the project has already been promised by the Serbian culture ministry, the Austrian foreign ministry and the German federal state of Baden-Württemberg.
Other programmes on the Collegium Hungaricum?s calendar this year focus on the European Football Championship, the London Olympics and the hundredth anniversaries of the births of the Hungarian neurobiologist János Szentágothai and the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
