The Open-air Museum in Szentendre

This is an excellent example of what a museum, working as a budgetary institution (institutions owned and financed entirely by the state or a local self-government are called 'budgetary institutions' in Hungarian) can do amidst the pressures of the market and the budget, and how it can perform its professional tasks, how far it is capable of producing the resources necessary to the performance of those tasks, and how it can evolve an operational organisation of quick reaction; further on, how it can co-ordinate high professional standards with events attracting the public. The Open-air Museum in Szentendre was able to demonstrate growth and enrichment even in the hardest period of the country's transition, when GDP fell year after year.

Presentation

The Open-air Museum of Ethnography in Szentendre, commonly known as the 'Skansen - village museum - in Szentendre', at a 30 minutes drive from downtown Budapest, is not an ordinary museum: it installs its exhibitions in the open-air, in an area measured by hectares, and it carries on building activity in a realistic scale. On prominent days something always happens there: either a festivity of grape gathering, or of pig killing: but all this is within the framework of a rigorously and seriously organised professional programme, with the objective of presenting Hungarian popular customs manifest in objects, in music, movements, food and drinks as well. In this museum the old traditions are also recalled among the old popular houses. The school children learn and experience what the old handicrafts were like, one can try and touch everything as part of a separate programme of museum education. Here everything, which used to exist long ago, becomes alive, and old tradition can be experienced for the duration of a short visit.

It is not an easy task if looked at with the professional eyes of a museum expert, or of an organiser of exhibitions, as the collection of most of the museums is untouchable, objects on display being valuable pictures, statues and other pieces. However, a museum developed in the open-air is in an entirely different situation: it is in a much better position in respect of tangibility, and it can offer a real, plastic experience. But it is in a far more difficult position due to the extensive area, diversity, guarding, real building activity and works of restoration. Attention has to be paid to many more things, a large variety of professional skills is needed, and requirements set from various directions have to be met. The tasks of the museum, scientific work, of maintenance and operation have to be considered in a different way.

History of the museum

The Open-air Museum of Ethnography in Szentendre - simply mentioned as the village museum in Szentendre in the following - is the museum of the country with the second largest number of visitors. It was founded in 1967, as a Village Museum Department of the Museum of Ethnography, which became an independent museum of nation-wide competency of collecting in 1972. Thus it constitutes a separate line in the budget of the Ministry of Culture, as one of the 21 national cultural institutions (including 7 museums) directly under the supervision of the government.

As a professional objective it was spelt out by the founders that the museum should present the folk architecture of Hungary, the peasant culture of homes, cultivation and way of life with the help of original, transferred buildings and objects from a period between the mid-eighteenth up to the first part of the twentieth century.

The task was solved by the museum by organising and rebuilding peasant houses in nine groups of structures, representing nine regions of the country. The structures fit into the traditional order of individual peasant households within a group, and are supplemented by such sacral, industrial and community structures which used to be part of the traditional rural image. Each of the residential houses and the auxiliary structures represent a historically developed type of house and its characteristic additional buildings. The traditional image of the village is enriched by collected signs of graves, a Calvary, mills and supplementary objects. After the completion of the nine regional groups of the country they would essentially preserve the architectural tradition of Hungary as a historical heritage from the eighteenth to twentieth-centuries.

The basic principles of the building and operation of the museum are the following:

1) Originality of the buildings: the dismantling of authentic, original buildings and their reassembling in the area of the museum represent the basis of the exhibition. A variety of skills are needed to all this, as an inventory of the dismantled elements of structures should be taken with meticulous precision, they should be restored and then rebuilt. To this space, time, money, skills, conservation materials, ethnographers, engineers, restoration experts, building workers and store rooms are equally needed. It is not enough to imagine on paper how all this should be done.

2) The buildings are presented to the public furnished, thus aiming at a unity of cultural history. It is not only the building, but also the objects in and around it, the objects of daily use which indicate the given region and period. And most recently the related crop culture is closely linked to it as well.

3) The image of the village is attempted to be shown to the visitor: in addition to the residential houses, the other important structures and remains of the village, such as churches and mills, are also visible.

4) The site of Szentendre itself is part of the village image: hilly regions and flat land alternate, just as it is the case in the various regions of Hungary. This is also part of authenticity.

Tasks

The complexity of financing can be sensed only if the complexity of the tasks is seen.

The work plan of the museum, prepared for the year 1999, extended over 79 pages. Some titles of chapters are presented here, without detail, just to illustrate complexity:

1) Current tasks by region, in detail (building, renewal, etc.) - 2) Permanent exhibitions - 3) Temporary exhibitions - 4) Planting programme - 5) Tasks of maintenance - 6) Other investment and development (buildings receiving the public beside the exhibition) - 7) Long-term research projects (28 of them!) - 8. Short-term scientific research - 9) Scientific publications - 10) Scientific conferences, presentations - 11) Archives and Collection of Hungarian Popular Architecture -12) Keeping of register, supply of data, taking of inventory - 13) Restoration, conservation - 14) Storage of objects - 15) Services to the public, cultural services - 16) Demonstrations, programmes, events - 17) Public relations, publicity - 18) Publications - 19) Library - 20) International relations - 21) Professional supervision (of the museums of ethnography operating in the country) - 22) Extension training - 23) Economic activity.

Naturally these tasks are inter-linked: the building of the exhibition and of the regional units is in the focus of attention, everything is organised around it and linked to this activity. The outdoor village museum in Szentendre is a specific ensemble of a scientific research institution, an institution of exhibitions and a company working as a firm of restoration, processing and building. Hence it is a complex one as an organisation too: the work of people of different qualifications and training has to be co-ordinated and managed within a single organisation. In this place a manager is an ethnographer of profound knowledge, and a strict economist in the next moment, or a businessman ready to take risks, and even a site architect, a 'lobbyist', or a bargaining 'market greengrocer' if the need be. The proper style is always dictated by the situation without which it is not possible to run the museum well.

The scale is well indicated by the collections besides the buildings: there are more than 60 000 objects, more than 120 000 photos, several thousand pages of ethnographic documentation and drawings. The computerised processing of these collections is in progress.

At present there are several on-going major building projects on the territory of the museum.

The two most significant ones are the following: the completion of the building of a new regional unit (the Balaton Highlands) by the year 2000, and a huge building for indoor activities, representing the twenty-first century. It would house the art objects, the archives, the workshops of processing and restoration and the rooms of the related experts. At last the wooden pieces and architectural elements of monumental value will be stored in a satisfactory place. Wooden material will be stored separately from textiles and other objects. Processing will also take place in this inner system in an up to date and well considered way. For the sake of curiosity it should be noted that the modern ensemble of buildings is hidden behind a system of ramparts so that it may not disturb the remains of traditional popular architecture, that is authenticity.

Naturally this kind of construction activity only absorbs and does not produce money: though exhibition material is enriched, and the destiny of museum objects is safely settled, it continuously costs money.

The outdoor village museum is alive: usually the visitors get something individual, something unique as a supplement to their looking around. Hence the so-called public educational function also had to be considered and organised so that the place may become one of the most frequented big museums of the country.

There is serious work behind it: work of museum pedagogy, museum sociology, but most of all a dynamic activity of public relations.

Tourist offices gladly bring foreign guests here, schools send their pupils: but the associates of the museum have done and are doing a lot to achieve it.

There is nothing more discouraging than a museum without people, where the exhibitions are boring, or unintelligible. A lot of work and inventiveness is needed to avoid it. This task is solved by the village museum with great efficiency.

In 1998 the museum was open for 185 days and had 183 110 visitors (ten thousand more than in 1997).

Of the total of visitors there were 82 135 adult, 66 977 student, 8 832 pensioner and
30 492 free-of-charge entrants.

Eighty-nine presentations were held, expert explanation was given to 52 school groups, topical classes were held for 117 groups, handicraft activities were organised for 214 groups, and activities free of charge were held on 23 occasions for groups of the local Szentendre schools. (The resources necessary to the latter ones were supplied by the local government and the Public Foundation for Museums respectively.)

Major events:

• "Stone Flower" international exchange and exhibition of minerals,
• Multitude for Whitsun,
• grape gathering festivity
• concert by the "Muzsikás" ensemble (perhaps the most popular one in the country, playing authentic peasant music).

Professional programmes related to the prominent days of the year:

Easter, St Florian's Day, St George's Day, Peter's and Paul's Day, St Anne's Day, St Stephen's Day, grape gathering, pig killing, May Day, "Medicine in herbs and trees", a day to commemorate Lajos Kossuth, Policemen's Day of Pest County.

The museum had 33 320 visitors on 16 days of demonstrations, and there were 22 874 visitors to the prominent major events. (Which meant an average number of visitors around 2000 to 2800 per day.)

On the days of demonstration the visitors could participate in 7 ecclesiastic programmes (Mass, service), 138 demonstrations of handicrafts, 7 ones of farming and the history of technology, 49 ones of ornamental folk art, 42 presentations of preparation of village food, 28 programmes of play house, 8 music and 24 folklore programmes, 2 folk theatricals and 32 other programmes (movie, knowledge of medicinal herbs, march of hussars, professional demonstration).

The museum is also a scientific research station, and a scientific annals is published under the title Ház és ember (House and Man). A minor publication is entitled Téka (Collection), which informs those interested about the professional activities in progress.

In 1998 the museum published a volume Balaton-felvidék népi építészete (Popular Architecture of the Balaton Highlands), a publication of museum pedagogy, the 98/1 volume of Téka, and volume 12 of the series Ház és ember.

The trilingual catalogue presents the museum and its exhibition material.

The museum is operated by almost 140 people: there are 86 associates of full employment, there are 37 people with part-time, secondary and subsidiary jobs, and pensioners. As the museum is only open seasonally and it is closed during the winter, therefore the employment of part-timers and of the wardens is temporary.

 

Financing

The resources of museums in Hungary are the following:

• Budgetary grant of the maintaining agency, usually the state, or a local government;
• Supplementary support won by competition: there are a few major public foundations, such as the Basic National Cultural Programme in the field of culture, and some local competitions invited by local governments. Everybody tries to rephrase one's programmes and tasks so that they may be adjusted to the call words of the competitions announced.
• Occasional sponsors and supporters represent a further resource for only a project at the most.
• Income of the museum: sale of tickets, sale in the museum shop, letting out venues, etc.

The institutions which, similarly to the outdoor village museum in Szentendre, are budgetary ones of a traditional character (they have not yet transformed themselves into a company, a foundation, etc.), are forced to do strict, short-term planning, in keeping with the rules of budgetary economies: they are not permitted to accumulate, to build up reserves and if they are unable to perform a certain investment in the given year, then they cannot use the sum, earmarked for the purpose, next year, leaving the money in a bank and earning income on it, but they have to return it to the state treasury, then, in the new year they have to reapply for the same sum. Thus the management has to carry on its economic activities as if it had to start everything anew. Naturally the managers of such budgetary institutions have got used to this practice, they have mastered the methods of struggle, and despite being tied up hand and foot, they are able to run their institution well.

On the other hand it is naturally true that since they do not enjoy the freedom of the market, they also cannot sense so vigorously its pressures, like a business organisation would do. The employees are protected by their being public servants, but this fact also limits their salaries. The budget limits a real, long-term financial planning, but it also means security: what was granted this year, would most probably be given next year as well.

Since state socialism was becoming looser in Hungary, that is for more than twenty years, there have been changes in the way of acquiring resources: the central subsidy does not cover all needs and the remaining sources must be exploited.

Meanwhile the internal, intra-institutional proportions of the utilisation of money have also undergone significant changes: while in the early 90s budgetary resources were used in a proportion of an approximately one third-one third spent on wages, maintenance, renewal and development, by now the proportions are entirely different. In 1999 (without central investment) two thirds of the expenses were spent on wages and their additional contributions, 25% on maintenance, and only 5% on the development of the museum. (Contributions actually mean that a significant part of the money granted by the state treasury will return to the state in the form of taxes, social security, employer's and other contributions.)

It is an eternal complaint of the institutions that they only receive one twelfth of the total sum of the budgetary grant each month. Naturally the treasury also has arguments to support this system: control, the elimination of abuse, the exclusion of the possibility of overspending and wastefulness are the usual points made.

Thus practically all budgetary institutions without exception are forced to live under a dual pressure: the state as maintainer (or the local government) is forced to introduce such rules which, in principle, would encourage the institutions to be economical and to consider their economies. The state elaborates all sorts of tools and sets of rules to prevent any possible wastefulness. On the side of the state, spending the taxpayers' money, the question is a justified one: as a taxpayer every citizen may expect that the money taken away from him/her is not squandered away. In practical realisation it is embodied in easily worded rules. There is always either the lack of clarification of principle, or a blurred definition of goal in the background of over-regulation.

Those who are concerned, experience the situation that the state maintains - in this case - museums out of good manners, as culture is part of the existence of a country, but it is attempted to keep them within bounds by legal norms worded as simply as possible. It is easier to recalculate everything annually than to leave longer-term economic activity to managers, who happen to be adults and responsible individuals. Naturally it is known that averted responsibility always results in wastefulness, and one should be a very conscious and purposeful manager to embark on planning for a period longer than one year. To this at least that much of risk (with individual responsibility) should be undertaken like in the case of any business enterprise.

In practice it meant the following in 1998:

Expenses	HUF 1000	€ 1000	%	%, without investment
Personal income with contributions	113 348	445	28,1	64,8
(Of this contribution paid by employer)	33 699	132	8,3	19,3
Actual cost	61 700	242	15,3	35,2
Central investment	228 893	898	56,6
Total	403 941	1 584	100	100

Incomes	HUF 1000	€ 1000	%	%, without investment
Operational income	63 643	250	15,7	36,2
	340 877	1 337	84,3	63,8
	404 520	1 586	100	100

The scale is well indicated by the fact that the so-called 'social and factory' building represents an altogether 400 million investment, work was started in 1998, and the completed parts are being continuously handed over since the end of 1999.

From an economic point of view it is almost always the construction work which represents the riskiest tasks, actually it is in this field, where two areas, working in a totally different way, are confronted: the world of culture is confronted with cold and calculating business world, relying on profit. To put it otherwise: a non-profit field against a for-profit field. In this field a modification of a contract has financial consequences as well: here there are penalties for non-performance, because it is this language which can be understood in this field. Whereas for an intellectual, for instance, doing professional museum work, the definition of work and task is just as much a duty spelt out in the job description like the issue of professional honesty.

When referring to the latter point, naturally the employee of a budgetary institution is always in a worse position, and an employee of a budgetary cultural institution is in a particularly disadvantageous one.

The village museum of Szentendre is a specific example of the complexity of budgetary economy, because it deals with large sums, consequently with items representing great responsibility. Naturally it does not simply spend the resources entrusted to it by the budget: because it would not be enough for everything, at least not in a system defined by the rules of the economy of the treasury. On the other hand, it is forced to save it up by balancing between various items and budgetary chapters.

Let us have a look at the changes of the professional tasks of the museum and the incomes deriving from it.

Changes of its own income

	HUF 1000	€ 1000
Sale of publications	3 369	13
Entrance fee, guided tours, organisation of demonstration events	30 079	118
Occasional and long-term rentals	5 200	20
Others	2 291	9
Altogether	40 939	161

It can be seen that the largest amount of income comes from the sale of tickets of entry and from demonstration events. The entrance fee is not high, one pays more for a ticket in a better cinema.

The museum has obtained support from the National Cultural Fund, from the Hungarian Tourism Inc., and from the Ministry of Culture and Education of altogether HUF 11,2 thousand for the purposes of major events and demonstrations organised by the Department of Public Culture of the museum, for publications popularising those events, and for IT development.

There is a significant and constantly growing demand for tourist and commissioned programmes, of which there were 46 in 1998.

The following sums had to be spent on publications in 1998:

	HUF 1000	€ 1000
Author's honorarium	313	1,2
Social insurance contributions paid after honorarium	109	0,4
Cost of printing	2 602	10,2
Total	3 024	11,9

This sum grew significantly in 1999, as reprints of leaflets and museum catalogues were commissioned, hence this sum was already HUF 5 270 thousand in 1999.

Average salary per employee: HUF 48 000 (€ 188,2). However, this average salary hides a significant dispersion.

The most difficult issue from the angle of economic activities is that the employees of the museum are public servants which means prescribed categories of wages. Generally speaking the so-called premium of the thirteenth month should be paid for extra work, or for work well performed, just as it is due at every place of work of public servants. If the organisation operates well economically, this one is supplemented by a fourteenth month as well.