Bereczki Ibolya - Sári Zsolt: Ház és Ember, A Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum évkönyve 28-29. (Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 2017)
SÁRI ZSOLT: Cseri Miklós hatvan éves
Zsolt Sári MIKLÓS CSERI 60 YEARS OLD Miklós Cseri the director general of the Hungarian Open Air Museum is 60 years old, and 30 years of these 60 years he spent in the Skanzen. After leaving the renowned Protestant secondary school in Sárospatak he received his degree in history and ethnography at the Debrecen University. He also took his doctorate there, then he obtained his Ph.D. degree. He commenced his museum career at the Herman Ottó Museum in Miskolc, where he also established himself as a researcher of folk architecture. He has worked at the Szentendre Skanzen since 1987, first as a museologist, then as scientific secretary, deputy general director and in 1994 he became acting director general. Since 1996 he has been appointed director general of the museum. During his two decade director general career the Skanzen has become the leading museum in the Hungarian museum sphere, and the definitive open air museum on the international scene, and he has become an honoured and definitive museum leader. Miklós Cseri is associated with revising the scientific development of the regional units of the museum, in the framework of which he set the objective of finalising the original concept, which made the building of the regional units faster. He has built four regional units during his time in office. Besides this he began planning of new regional units (village from the middle ages, 20th century village, diaspora and the Transylvanian building complex). The Transylvanian building complex, the greatest development of the museum’s history is due to start in 2017. Being a visitor-friendly and a public-service museum is not an empty phrase in the director general’s vocabulary. He first started to develop his vision of the museum in the areas of receiving visitors and public relations. The themes of knowledge transfer, intangible cultural heritage and folk architecture were also connected to the structure of the museum in order to become a competence based institute. As an innovative leader Dr. Cseri is widely honoured and recognised by the museologist profession both in Hungary and internationally. He frequently stresses that ‘you cannot build a museum on your own’. But in order to be able to build a museum a leader is indispensable, a leader that can bring the team together. This is what he has actually succeeded. Happy birthday to the director general! 18
