Beyond Reform: Three Priorities for Hungary's Museum Future

On 24 April 2026, ICOM Hungary published its 19-point discussion paper Challenges and Expectations Concerning the Hungarian Museum System, launching a national professional dialogue on the future of museums in Hungary.

The document presents an ambitious agenda for restoring professional autonomy, strengthening museum governance, improving digital infrastructure, supporting research, and rebuilding international cooperation. It rightly argues that museums are not merely repositories of objects, but public institutions with educational, cultural and social responsibilities.

On 19 May 2026, these proposals were discussed at a public professional forum held at the Óbuda Museum – Goldberger Textile Collection in Budapest, bringing together representatives of Hungary's leading museum organisations to contribute to a shared vision for the future of the museum sector.

The European Roma Cultural Foundation welcomes this initiative. It represents an important opportunity to rethink the role of museums within a democratic society and to reconnect Hungarian museum practice with international professional standards.

At the same time, we believe that the current discussion can be strengthened by addressing three priorities that deserve more explicit structural attention.

1. Restoring institutional autonomy

The restoration of professional autonomy requires more than general principles.

The dismantling of the centralised Public Collections Centre and the restoration of the independent legal status of the museums incorporated into it should become a central objective of reform. Museums with distinct collections, institutional histories and professional missions cannot effectively operate within a single centralised administrative framework.

Transparent leadership appointments, independent governance and professional boards are not administrative privileges; they are conditions for scholarly credibility and public trust.

2. Rebuilding collections, research and public access

Institutional reform must also address the museums' core professional functions.

Contemporary acquisitions have slowed dramatically, collection management requires substantial investment, digital accessibility remains uneven, and provenance research and restitution continue to lack comprehensive institutional frameworks.

Museums produce knowledge. They preserve cultural memory through collecting, documenting, researching and interpreting heritage. Without renewed investment in these activities, structural reform risks remaining largely symbolic.

3. Making diversity structural rather than symbolic

ICOM Hungary rightly recognises the importance of inclusivity and social responsibility. Yet the discussion remains relatively general regarding the structural representation of communities whose cultural heritage has historically been marginalised.

Hungary is home to one of Europe's largest Roma communities. Nevertheless, Roma cultural heritage continues to occupy only a limited place within public museum practice, frequently appearing through ethnographic or folkloric narratives rather than through contemporary artistic production, curatorial practice, collection strategies or institutional leadership.

A meaningful commitment to diversity requires measurable institutional policies.

This includes dedicated acquisition programmes for contemporary Roma art, meaningful professional opportunities for Roma museum specialists, measurable diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategies, and renewed participation in international professional networks including ICOM, NEMO, CIMAM, ERIAC and the RomaMoMA initiative.

Museums shape the future of public memory

Museum reform is ultimately not only about institutions.

Every acquisition, exhibition, research programme and curatorial decision contributes to defining whose histories become part of the public record and whose experiences remain invisible.

The ICOM Hungary discussion paper provides an important foundation for rebuilding Hungary's museum system. The European Roma Cultural Foundation hopes that the ongoing professional dialogue will also become an opportunity to place Roma cultural heritage, institutional diversity and cultural equality at the centre of this renewal.

A democratic museum system is measured not only by how it preserves collections, but also by whose histories it chooses to preserve.

Further reading

The full 19-point discussion paper published by ICOM Hungary (available in Hungarian) can be accessed here:

https://www.icomhungary.hu/hu/kihivasok-es-elvarasok-magyar-muzeumi-rendszerrel-kapcsolatban