Museum services suffer as unpaid volunteers and interns replace staff

Posted on November 3, 2013 by ellenpolus

Funding cuts have forced museums and galleries to employ more unpaid volunteers and reduce the numbers of museum professionals, affecting education and outreach programmes. (UK)

More than a third of museums and galleries were forced to cut their paid staff in the last year, primarily due to falling public investment. 49% received a cut in their overall income, putting services for vulnerable people and non-traditional audiences under threat. Funding cuts have affected half of all museums in the past year alone, forcing 47% to increase the number of unpaid volunteers and interns that they employ. Mark Taylor, Director of the Museums Association, said: “Interns and volunteers have plenty to offer, but can never replace skilled, experienced staff. We know museums’ public services are being hit and we are increasingly worried about the loss of specialist expertise and the long-term care of collections. It is outrageous that young people should be expected to work for nothing”. Unpaid internships are increasingly controversial in museums and the wider arts sector where the work can be exploitative, and it also reduces the diversity of people who can enter the museum workforce, according to Taylor: “Only wealthier young people can afford to work for nothing, especially in expensive cities like London”.

Data from the Museums Association’s Cuts Survey 2013, where respondents were asked to comment on changes over the past 12 months to income, staffing levels and service provision, shows 23% of respondents reduced the number of temporary exhibitions on display and 28% of museums reduced the number of free events on offer. School visits have decreased at nearly a third of museums.

More: Artsprofessional

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Felicia Theus: Kultur in Ungarn 2013

Posted on November 3, 2013 by ellenpolus

Kulturelle Initiativen und ihre Vernetzung im Widerstand gegen die politische Gleichschaltung

Seit dem Regierungswechsel 2010 scheint sich Ungarn langsam von einer Demokratie
weg zu entwickeln, hin zu einem autokratischen System1. Sowohl in sozialen, als auch
in familienpolitischen und kulturellen Themen wird die national-konservative Ausrichtung der FIDESZ Partei deutlich. Nicht zuletzt mit der neuen Verfassung (2013) gerät die Basis der freien Kulturszene maßgeblich ins Wanken (siehe hierzu Kapitel 2.2.5).
Diese Arbeit ist dem sich dagegen regenden Widerstand in der kulturellen Szene Ungarns
gewidmet. Motiviert durch eine Reise der Autorin nach Budapest soll diese Arbeit
die sich bildende Opposition im Kulturbereich vorstellen und ihre Wirkungsweise untersuchen.
Die drei Thesen, die im Folgenden untersucht werden, lauten:
• Kulturschaffende in Ungarn bilden ein Netzwerk im Widerstand gegen die politische
Gleichschaltung.
• Die Organisation der Kulturschaffenden in Netzwerk-Strukturen bietet ihnen
Rückhalt und ermöglicht politische Einflussnahme.
• Die Vernetzung der kulturellen Szene spielt eine zentrale Rolle in der Opposition
gegen Orbán in Ungarn 2013.

Stiftung Universität Hildesheim, Fachbereich Kulturwissenschaften und Ästhetische Kommunikation, Institut für Kulturpolitik, Sommersemester 2013

Downloaden PDF: Kultur in Ungarn 2013 – Kulturelle Initiativen und ihre Vernetzung im Widerstand gegen die politische Gleichschaltung

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Bust of Admiral Miklos Horthy to be unveiled on Sunday

Posted on November 3, 2013 by ellenpolus

hortler

A bronze bust of Admiral Miklos Horthy (pictured here with Adolph Hitler) will be unveiled this Sunday at the Hungarian Reformed Church’s Hazatérés Temploma (the “Homecoming Temple”) in Budapest’s 5th district.  The event coincides with the 75th anniversary of the First Vienna Award and the laying of the temple’s foundation.

The bust was made by Hungarian sculptor Bela Domokos who told us it took 5 months to create and will be placed at the entrance to the temple’s atrium (the Reformed Church does not allow statues to be placed inside temple sanctuaries).  Until recently four of Domokos’ busts could be seen in the temple’s atrium: Lajos Kossuth, Albert Wass, Dezso Szabo, and Admiral Horthy. A bust of John Calvin by Domokos can be seen at the Reformed Church of Kalvin square in Budapest’s 9th district.

The bust of Horthy was commissioned by the temple’s minister, Lorant Hegedus Jr..

No stranger to controversy, Hegedus is an outspoken anti-semite and ardent supporter of the Hungarian radical right-wing party Jobbik.  His wife is a Jobbik member of parliament.

The Hungarian Reformed Church has not officially distanced itself from Hegedus.

After Hegedus delivers an opening sermon, a celebratory speech will be made by Jobbik MP Marton Gyongyosi.  Earlier this year Gyongyosi was heavily criticized both at home and abroad for delivering a speech in parliament calling for a list to be compiled of all Jewish MPs and government members.  Gyongyosi’s speech prompted Laszlo Kover, President of Parliament, to forbid Gyongyosi from visiting Rome as part of a Hungarian delegation (Kover himself was banned from entering Israel just a few months earlier when the Israeli Knesset made him a “persona non-grata” for officiating the reburial of convicted WWII Hungarian war criminal Jozsef Nyiro).

Admiral Horthy (1868-1957) served as Regent of Hungary from 1920 to 1944. It was under Horthy’s rule that Hungary introduced modern Europe’s first anti-Jewish laws, the Numerus clausus law of 1920. It was also under Horthy’s rule that Hungary introduced its own version of Germany’s Nuremberg Laws in 1939.

Although the degree of Horthy’s hostility towards Jews has been the subject of some debate, he wrote the following to Hungarian Prime Minister Count Teleki in 1940:

Concerning the Jewish question, for all my life I have been an anti-Semite.  I have never made any contact with Jews.  I have found it intolerable that here, in Hungary, every single factory, bank, asset, shop, theater, newspaper, trader, etc. is in Jewish hands.

Some 600,000 Hungarian Jews lost their lives during the Holocaust, nearly two-thirds of Hungary’s Jewish population.

more: BudapestBeacon

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Disrupting Business: Art & Activism in Times of Financial Crisis

Posted on November 2, 2013 by ellenpolus

disruptive bussinessDisrupting Business explores some of the interconnections between art,
activism and the business concept of disruptive innovation. With a
backdrop of the crisis in financial capitalism and austerity cuts in the
cultural sphere, the idea is to focus on potential art strategies in
relation to a broken economy. In a perverse way, we ask whether this
presents new opportunities for cultural producers to achieve more
autonomy over their production process. If it is indeed possible, or desirable, what alternative business models emerge? This book is concerned broadly with business as material for reinvention, including
critical writing and examples of art/activist projects.

Edited by Tatiana Bazzichelli & Geoff Cox / Data Browser 05 /
Publisher: Autonomedia, NY, 2013 Buy Paperback: Autonomedia

Download PDF

Tatiana Bazzicheli is Postdoc Researcher at Leuphana University of Lüneberg and programme curator at transmediale festival, Berlin, Germany. Geoff Cox is Associate Professor in the Department of Aesthetics and Communication, Aarhus University, Denmark, and Adjunct Faculty, Transart Institute, Germany and the United States. Contributors include Saul Albert, Christian Ulrik Andersen, Franco “Bifo” Berardi, Heath Bunting, Paolo Cirio, Baruch Gottlieb, Brian Holmes, Geert Lovink, Dmytri Kleiner, Georgios Papadopolous, Soren Bro Pold, Oliver Ressler, Kate Rich, René Ridgway, Guido Segni, Stevphen Shukaitis, Nathaniel Tkacz, and Marina Vishmidt.

More info here

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Neue Partei für die Rechtesten der Rechten

Posted on November 1, 2013 by ellenpolus

Die „Ungarische Morgenröte“ wurde aus der Taufe gehoben – sie will Sammelbecken der Radikalen sein.
Ihm ist sogar Jobbik zu wenig radikal: Balazs Lenhardt, ehemals Parlamentsabgeordneter eben jener rechten Partei, die Ungarn seit geraumer Zeit in die Negativschlagzeilen bringt, hat nun ein neues Projekt gestartet. Noch radikaler, noch weiter rechts will man damit stehen.
Damit dies auch so richtig deutlich wird, hat Lenhardt seinem Parteiprojekt einen Namen verpasst, der unmissverständlicher nicht sein könnte: „Ungarische Morgenröte“ (Magyar Hajnal) heißt die Bewegung – angelehnt an die griechische „Goldene Morgenröte“; jene hellenische Neonazi-Partei, die derzeit strafrechtlich als kriminelle und terroristische Vereinigung verfolgt wird.

Parteigründer Balazs Lenhardt – beim Verbrennen einer israelischen Flagge. – Foto: APA/TAMAS KOVACS

Am Donnerstag soll die Parteigründung dann auch ganz offiziell verkündet werden. Lenhardt, der derzeit als unabhängiger Abgeordneter im Budapester Parlament sitzt, will seine Partei breit aufstellen: Er will “mit allen Organisationen der nationalen, radikalen Seite” kooperieren, die nicht als Verbündete der rechtsradikalen Jobbik gelten.

Von Jobbik enttäuscht

Er sei nämlich – nach eigener Aussage – von Jobbik ziemlich “enttäuscht”, da die Partei im Parlament ihren “nationalen Radikalismus” verloren hätte. Unter den “radikalen Organisationen” würde es seit einem Jahr “intensive Verhandlungen und Kooperation geben”. Verschiedene national-radikale Organisationen hätten bereits Mitglieder in den Vorstand von “Ungarische Morgenröte” delegiert.
Laut dem ungarischen Onlineportal Nepszabadsag werde Andras Kisgergely die neue Partei führen – auch er hat eine intensive Beziehung zu den Rechten im Parlament: Er war im Frühjahr 2012 von Jobbik ausgeschlossen wurde, da er versucht habe, die Partei zu spalten.

weiter: Kurier

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Hungary’s ‘Magyar Hajnal’ assert far right identity against others’

Posted on November 1, 2013 by ellenpolus

A longlasting racial conflict appears to be rekindling in Hungary. Hardcore believers in the political far right are assuming a new name. They are keen to establish their identity with a party called Hungarian Dawn – ‘Magyar Hajnal’. Their bid is under consideration by the courts.

The group’s ambitions include nothing less than turning back the clock by nearly 100 years; they want to cancel the Treaty of Trianon, which in 1920 dissolved the Astro-Hungarian empire and left Hungary smaller.
Would-be party leader Andras Kisgergely reveals a sense of Hungarian Dawn’s reasoning, its mentality, with the assertion he makes in a speech, saying: “Everybody in Hungary should have the right to protect himself, his family and his values and property. We are going to fight for the right of every Hungarian to own a gun!”

The men and women behind Kisgergely feel the far right party Jobbik, the country’s third-largest, is not radical enough, that it is too ‘soft’. They are connected to paramilitary organisations identified with violent criminal acts – organisations that Hungarian Dawn wants to unite under one banner.

This would fill the relative vacuum left after the disbanding of the infamous Magyar Gárda (Hungarian Guard), which was initially linked to Jobbik. These vigilante paramilitaries terrorised Roma gypsy neighbourhoods.

Their opponents say that the Roma-hating, Jew-hating, anti-European Union nationalists are proud of their Hungarian ethnicity. Last year they sidelined prominent Jobbik leader Csanad Szegedi when they discovered his Jewish side. Half his family were exterminated in WWII.

more+video: Euronews

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Half of Hungarian Parents Expect their Children to Work Abroad – Survey

Posted on October 31, 2013 by ellenpolus
  • By Veronika Gulyas

Almost half of all Hungarian parents believe their children could be tempted to seek work abroad as the country continues to struggle against high unemployment in the 15 to 24 age range, according to a new poll.

The survey by Jobline, one of Hungary’s largest job advertisement websites, found that many families expect their offspring to be employed outside Hungary for an average one-to-two years.

The prospect of earning higher wages abroad or facing unemployment at home continues to lure the country’s youngsters to West European countries and elsewhere.

Those moving abroad can expect to earn much more than in Hungary. Jobline head Gabor Toldi told the Wall Street Journal that West European youngsters who move abroad do so for other reasons than the need to find a well-paid job.

“This is a sorry phenomenon as it compares to [a motivation for] learning languages or discovering another culture for citizens of some Western European countries,” he said.

The parents of children who leave school with only basic qualifications were more likely to expect their children to move abroad than those of academic high achievers.

more: WallStreetJournal

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