From the Cloud Knights to the North-West Hungarian Village Region

16 applications for the competition „Exhibition of the Year” - 16 actualities from the world of Hungarian culture.

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In December 2010 Pulszky Society – Hungarian Museum Association announced a new prize for Hungarian museums. The institutions can compete for the title „Exhibition of the Year” by shows presenting new scientific results, or expositions using modern technologies, reaching new groups of people of different social backgrounds.

The jury of the competition consists of members delegated by the Museum Association, the Alliance of National Public Collections, by the County Museum Directorates but museum-goers will also be represented by an architect, an educational specialist, a cultural journalist, the member of the board of Society for the Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge (TIT) and an executive of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant Ltd. The prize giving ceremony will take place at the International Museum Day Festival in May.

The Pulszky Society received altogether 16 applications by the January 31 deadline. The great variety of them represents the richness that the Hungarian museum world can offer. Among the applicants one can find popular museums of national renown, local history museums, museums os special interest. Even the historical collection of the Peter Pazmany Catholic University, the Black Stork House of the village of Báta and the National Lutheran Museum decided to take part in the competition, the latter with the exhibition „Lutheran National Eleven”.

Of the „big museums” the Ethnographical entered the competition with the exhibition „How We See the Finns”, the Hungarian Museum of Trade and Tourism with the show presenting the history of coffee making. The show named Space Conqueror by the Museum of Transport presenting the cultural impact and history of videogames, and the exposition „Cloud Knights” by the Petőfi Literary Museum are also among the competitors. The list of exhibition are completed with the new permanent exhibitions of the Open Air Museum in Szentendre (“North Hungarian Village Region”), the Óbuda Museum (“Óbuda-Three Faces of a Town”), the Sándor Petőfi Memorial Museum in Szalkszentmárton and the Jókai-mansion in Balatonfüred .

The museums, according to the announcement of the Pulszky Society, in reaching new public groups arranged their shows which were all based on the latest interpretational devices and exhibition programs of high standard. The documentaries on the history of heavy metal, the competitions announced by the museums for students served the same purpose as the museum educational programs linked to the exhibitions, or the moving of the exhibitions themselves from one town to another.

The task of the jury is rather difficult, since they have to choose only one winner out of the 16 participant exhibitions by May 2011. The public is in a situation more enviable: they can visit the shows and decide for themselves which one is the most interesting, and if they can’t decide they can give their own virtual award to all of the museums.

Judit Bertáné dr. Varga
executive chairman - Pulszky Society
b.varga.j@t-online.hu