Regional Observatory on Financing Culture in East-Central Europe
The Budapest Observatory

Kelet-Közép-Európai Kulturális Obszervatórium Alapítvány
Budapesti Obszervatórium

	(+36 1) 327 3829
	(+36 1) 374 0898
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	H-1051 Budapest, Október 6 utca 14

History

The official birthday of the Budapest Observatory is the 22nd of April; our foundation was registered on that day in 1999. The time between the original conception and the birth was rather long, with two preparatory meetings paving the way (see notes).

To be of help for those who want to know more about the conditions (finances, legislation, governance, policies) of cultural life (cultural activities, products and organisations) in east-central European countries.

Scope, Objectives and Activities

The term east-central Europe is applied generously, to cover about twenty states between the Baltic and the Adriatic Seas which share the same (or very similar) historic legacy of authoritarian Communism. In certain ways we are inclined to extend our sphere of operation to Austria (they had a bit of Soviet occupation for almost ten years) and the east of Germany.

We are not searching for a common east-central European identity (a new version of the Mitteleuropa concept); but we do look for shared experiences and interests.

In spite of the sea of words told and printed about the issues, successes and failures of cultural policies, especially funding, in the region, reliable first-hand evidence is hard to find. The Budapest Observatory aims to fill this information gap. As a resource organisation, the Observatory wants to facilitate research, collect and provide information, establish contacts in areas that include the financing of culture, cultural policy, legislation and statistics.

The Budapest Observatory functions under the umbrella of the Foundation for the East-Central European Cultural Observatory, registered at Budapest Central Court in April 1999. (Register number at court: 7489. Tax register number: 18095379-141). The founder was the Kultúraközvetítők Társasága (Society of Mediators of Culture), a Hungarian civil organisation.

The foundation is governed by a Board of Directors with Valéria Pavluska as President. Members: Iván M. Balassa, Gábor Koncz, Máté Kovács and Csaba Tóth. Miklós Marschall served as president during the first year. Other former members were Péter Hidy, János Horváth, Sándor Horváth, Edina Lakatos and Zsófia Zimányi.

Board of Supervision: Csaba Gallyas, Katalin Farkas and Péter Kirschner. Former members: Péter Deme, Katalin Havas and Timea Tibori.

Staff: Péter Inkei (director), This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Zoltán Szabó, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Szabó, Zsolt Böcz (finance).

Former staff members: Zita Lévai (1999-2002), Attila Zongor (1999-2000), Anikó Kis (2000), Zsófia Földesi (2000-2003), Dóra Balázs (2002), Anna Horváth (2002), Márton L. Rövid (2002), Csaba Boros (2002-2003), Daniela Langusi (2002-2004), Gizella Barsi (2003), Zita Kádár (2003), Zoltán Imely (2004-2005), Zsuzsa Hunyadi (2004-2005), Krisztina Keresztély (2004-2005), Beáta Barda (2005), András Dávid (2005), Bíborka Molnár (2005), Gábor Mondik (2006-2008), Judit Friss (2004-2009), Vera Iváncsics (2009-2010).

Unesco provided seed money which was spent on setting up the initial infrastructure and on functioning in the first several months. Since then, BO has survived from project grants. BO received structural and project support from the Hungarian Ministry of Cultural Heritage (Nemzeti Kulturális Örökség Minisztériuma, 2003, 2006), the Hungarian National Cultural Fund (Nemzeti Kulturális Alap, 2004), and structural support from the National Civic Fund (Nemzeti Civil Alapprogram, from 2007 yearly).

Affiliations

The Budapest Observatory is a member of CIRCLE (Cultural Information and Research Centres Liaison in Europe, now defunct), Culture Action Europe (formerly  EFAH, the European Forum for the Arts and Heritage), and Encatc, the European Network of Cultural Administration Training Centres.  

Logo

Our logo was designed by Anna Farkas.

Notes

Péter This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it was deputy to the minister for culture between 1996-1998, lately - besides the post fulfilled at the Budapest Observatory - consultant of the Council of Europe (Mosaic project, cultural policy review on Albania, CultureWatchEurope events etc.), the Open Society Institute - Budapest, the World Bank, the National Development Agency of Hungary etc. Between 2000-2006 board member of CIRCLE, and between 2004-2006 member of the Steering Committee of LabforCulture. As author of the country profile on Hungary, has been member of the Compendium expert team since 2000. Since 2001 executive manager of the Central European University Press.

The Foundation was registered under non-profit status (as a "közhasznú szervezet") according to Hungarian law, see közhasznúsági jelentés 1999 , 2000 , 2003 , 2004 , 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 , 2009.

The almost pre-historic two meetings:

• International Conference on the Preservation and Development of Cultural Life in Central and Eastern European Countries, organised by UNESCO in co-operation with the Hungarian Ministry of Culture and Education, Hungarian National Commission for UNESCO, Council of Europe, Commission of European Communities, European Mozart Foundation, Budapest, January 1997;
• Consultative Meeting organised by the Foundation for the East-Central European Cultural Observatory and the Hungarian National Commission for Unesco in co-operation with the Hungarian Ministry for Cultural Heritage, KulturKontakt, Budapest, April 1999.