News

Historic tandem

In the cooperation of the Budapest History Museum and the Memento Park  tthere is a discounted price for he second visited museum  by using each other's tickets. 

You can discover the world of the medieval Buda and 19th century Pest-Buda in the cool rooms of Castle Museum on hot summer days. The Memento Park surprise is the legthened opening hours, which means, that you can walking around the dictatorship statues til 8 pm.  látnivalói között.

The ' One ticket for Two' promotion is valid til 30th of September 2010.

Source: BTL.hu, 10/07/21

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hall of Art and Ernst Museum island tent in August at the Sziget Festival
11 August 2010 – 16 August 2010

The Hall of Art and Ernst Museum will organise two exhibitions in the Museum Quarter of Sziget: one of them is titled “Over the Counter”, which presents the region's artists' actual feelings and reflections, based on the processes and illusions of economy history in the near past of East and Central Europe, while the other one is the individual exhibition titled “The Same Stream” with Gyula Várnai’s works, who became a dominant figure in Hungarian contemporary arts after having been socialised in this period.  The unique atmosphere, mystery and versatility of his works always offer something new. The programme of the Hall of Art tent will be connected to these exhibitions during the Sziget Festival.

Source: Hall of Art, 1 July 2010

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The winner of the painting on the National Gallery 

The Visualpower Paint Up! building painting competition has finished, we have the results.  Lóránt Demeter's  masterpiece the Variations  was the best, Tamás Iván' Hétnyolcad won the second place and bronze medal winner was the Kiégett Izzó's Closed Hours work according to the decision of the jury (Bordos László Zsolt, Szirtes János, Szép Fruzsina, Káel Csaba, Petrányi Zsolt).
The Illuvision's 'Past is prologue' work has awarded by the attendance.

Five masterpieces got the Sziget special prize. 

The Visualpower has announced the Paint Up! Competition at the beginning of May 2010. It was designed to the front of the National Gallery B Building. The visual effects with a 3-minute music background was strictly adopted to the architecture style of the building. Any body could enter the race wasn't matter if they were professionals or amateurs.

Approximately 60 competitors tried to win. The 5-member jury elected the final 12.

The general public could see the works at the Museum's Night on the 19th of June 2010.

Source: Kreatív Online

Date: 23-06-2010

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The plans of the visitor centre at Heroes’ Square have been finalised

The underground expansion, with a floor space of more than 8,000 square metres, will be called the Museum of Fine Arts’ Centre for Visitors and Tourists, and it will serve functions that will make the museum a visitor-friendly and modern institution that meets the requirements of the 21st century.
In 2005 the director of the museum decided to launch the preparation for the investment aimed at expanding the museum. The plans for the expansion were revealed in the spring of 2008, and they were approved and authorised by every office, board and municipality concerned.  Over the last months, however, the Museum has modified certain parts of the plans because of criticisms, and in consequence the main staircase of the building will not be reconstructed, as it would have been according to the original ideas, and there will be no direct entrance from the stairs to the new part of the building. Another change is that the “cubicle”, which covers the entrance from Dózsa György Street, will be more airy and transparent – reported the website Épülettár.
The modified plans were introduced by general director László Baán, the architect of the expansion Tamás Karácsony, and architect György Skardelli, the opponent of the plans, at the press conference in the Museum’s Marble Hall.
At the plan-proposal competition in 2008 the jury appointed by the museum and the institution decided that the plans of Tamás Karácsony, an Ybl-award winning architect, were the best, so the new building part will be constructed according to his ideas. These ideas will be developed together with the  former head architect of the Field Service for Cultural Heritage, Zsolt Szécsi, who prepared the basic concept, and architect István Mányi, who led the reconstruction work on the museum’s “old” building.
According to the plans, the construction works will start at the beginning of 2011, and in 2012 visitors will be able to use the new building. The new building part will also serve all those functions and services that are essential for a large European museum in the 21st century.
Visitors to the institution will be welcomed here, and they will be able to buy their tickets and receive information in this new part of the museum as well. This area will have a café, a restaurant, a museum shop, child care facilities and a new, modern temporary exhibition room with a floor space of 1,200 square metres, which will also be able to host large exhibitions. The centre will also include a lecture hall, which will be suitable for the museum to organise entertainments and scientific events and conferences.
At the future information centre, in addition to museum-related information, tourists visiting Heroes' Square will also be able to receive information about the capital and the region. The expansion plans will be prepared in such a way that the centre could technically be attached to further buildings to be constructed during possible future expansions under Heroes’ Square. According to the plans, visitors will be able to observe the underground works during the construction. After the completion of the large-scale, EU-funded investment, the Museum of Fine Arts will be one of the greatest public museums in the world with respect to its unique collection, as well as its appearance and visitor services.

Source: Turizmus Bulletin, 2010.June 11 

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Raffaello to Goya – the Museum of Fine Arts’ exhibition in Moscow

From 9 June until the end of August, an exhibition called “From Raffaello to Goya”, which presents the finest examples of the Museum of Fine Art’s Old Master Paintings, can be visited in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow.
The exhibition “From Degas to Picasso”, a selection from the material of the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, was open tor the public in the Museum of Fine Arts for three months (it closed at the end of May). The exhibition had more than 120,000 visitors. With the Moscow exhibition from 9 June, the Museum of Fine Arts would like to return the favour from the Pushkin Museum that they exhibited their collection in Budapest.
The collection to be exhibited in Moscow provides a comprehensive representation of the Old Master Paintings of the Museum of Fine Arts. In addition to Raffaello and Goya, who are mentioned in the title, the 60 masterpieces exhibited in Moscow include the works of Van Dyck, Brueghel, Dürer, Rubens, El Greco, Velázquez and Giorgione.  
This Moscow exhibition of the Museum of Fine Arts’ treasures is not its first significant international appearance.  During the last years the museum introduced itself with a separate exhibition in the Louvre, Paris, in the Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg, and most recently the museum had a joint exhibition with the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, in Tokyo and Kyoto. (The exhibition organised in the island country’s capital reached no. 10 on the list of the most frequently visited exhibitions in 2009.) After the appearance in Moscow, the Museum of Fine Arts will be the guest of the Royal Academy of Arts, London in September with the exhibition titled "Treasures from Budapest - European masterpieces from Leonardo to Schiele. 

Source: Turizmus Panoráma Bulletin, 2010/110. 2010. june 9.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Imre Kiss, the general director of the Palace of Arts was awarded with the ISPA International Merit of Honor Award

On 5 June 2010 ISPA (International Society for Performing Arts) awarded Imre Kiss, the general director of the Palace of Arts, with the International Merit of Honor in Zagreb. Director Imre Kiss is the first in the East European region to receive this award.  The achievement was celebrated by Géza Kovács, the general director of the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, who has been a member of the ISPA board since 2007. The general director emphasised the diversity of Imre Kiss’ lifework; he founded the Budapest Summer Festival, was the manager director of the Hungarian State Opera and Vígszínház (Comedy Theatre), and established the Palace of Arts.  He has been working as a real manager of the arts at a level far beyond his generation and the period he is living in, said Géza Kovács. The headquarters of ISPA, which is the largest and most comprehensive international organisation in performance art, can be found in New York. The non-profit organisation was founded in 1949, and it has contact with more than 600 directors, managers and artists from 50 countries from all over the world. The directors of the Barbican Centre in London, the Opera in Paris, and the Esplanade Artistic Centre in Singapore are among its chosen leaders and members, as well as dance artists, actors and musicians. Members also include concert halls, festivals, companies, government officials responsible for culture, art managers and other professionals, who are dedicated to the performing arts. The award ceremony can be watched at:

Source: Turizmus Panoráma Bulletin, 2010/110. 2010. june 9.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Expansion of the Museum of Fine Arts under street level –Visitor and Tourist Centre at Heroes’ Square

The largest cultural investment of the following years in Budapest will be the construction of the new building part of the Museum of Fine Arts under street level. The investment will be carried out within the framework of the New Hungary Development Plan, with HUF 3.5 billion (around EUR 14.5 million) of EU support. The supporting contract for the key project was signed at the Museum within the framework of a fitting ceremony. The document was signed by Dr. Tamás Lukovich, leader of Pro Régió Kht., and Dr. László Baán, director of the Museum, in the presence of László Varju, Secretary of State of the Ministry of National Development and Economy, Balázs Mosonyi, head of the Leading Authority of the Regional Development Programmes of the National Development Agency and Dr. Pál Steiner, president of Central Hungarian Regional Development Council. 

The number of visitors to the major European museums has increased significantly in the last few decades, and in Hungary the bigger exhibitions of recent years have also shown that a prominent exhibition can even attract several hundred thousand visitors to the museum. At the same time, visitor's needs have also changed, and in addition to focusing on preserving and displaying pieces of art, an institution also has to become a sort of “experience centre”. The government decided to accept the EU’s  HUF 3.5 billion of support for the expansion under street level on 27 July 2007. Due to the investment the Museum will be expanded by a floor space of nearly 9,000 square metres.

The construction of the visitor-friendly museum and centre for tourism under street level is the largest development for the Museum and also on Heroes’ Square since the institute opened in 1906,. The new underground area of the building will provide functions and services (temporary exhibition room, child care facilities, lecture hall, museum shop, café and restaurant) that are nowadays essential for a prominent European museum and its built environment. The construction will be carried out in a way that the building of the Museum of Fine Arts, which was designed by Albert Schikedanz, will preserve its present appearence.  At the same time, the circumstances of welcoming tourists to the city's most frequently visited square will change significantly. The aim of the HUF 3.9-billion investment is not only to expand the museum, but also to create an important, new centre for tourism in the capital at Heroes' Square, which is part of the World Heritage. 

The Museum of Fine Arts’ expansion plans have been in preparation by the architect, Zsolt Szécsi since 2005. The chapters of the plan that include the old building have been prepared by István Mányi, the architect who has been planning the reconstruction of the building for several decades. Tamás Karácsony DLA, the architect who won last winter’s plan-proposal competition with his colleagues, joined the construction project this spring.  The plan to be authorised was prepared by the three leading designers. After signing the contract, tender plans will be developed, and then there will be a call for tender for the main contractor. The actual construction work on the new building will be launched in the autumn of 2009, and the completion of the works can be expected by spring 2011.

More information:

Museum of Fine Arts
1146 Budapest, Dózsa György út 41.
1396 Budapest, 62. Pf. 463.
Telephone: 469 7100
Fax: 469 7171
info@szepmuveszeti.hu

2010. March