Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 97. (Budapest, 2002)

The Year 2002

PUBLIC RELATIONS, EDUCATION AND RESEARCH The national museum entrance fee system has come into effect as of January 1, 2001. It provides free admission to museums for a wide range of people designated by age, family status and profession. Nevertheless, contrary to the former regulations, it does not grant free admission to students. At the same time, another regulation, in force since September 2002, provides school groups with free railway travel. Prior to the central regulation, our Museum has established a well-considered, reasoned system of reductions, which had to be modified in some parts due to the regulation. However, we have succeeded in retaining, perhaps solely over the country, the full gratuitousness of student admissions for 2002 and 2003, concerning all students in elementary, secondary and higher education. The website of the Museum (www.szepmuveszeti.hu) has reached completion in 2002. It provides the public with easily accessible and detailed information. Two new publications have been issued to serve the general public in 2002. The first is the revised, enlarged and redesigned English version of the popular guide presenting the six collections of our Museum; the other one is the guide of the exhibition of Greek and Roman art, written by János György Szilágyi, which, for the time being, is available only in Hungarian. Two volumes of the present Bulletin were issued, one of them being a special issue dedicated to Edith Varga on her 70th birthday. September witnessed the launching of the Eós (Dawn) programme of museum education. The scope of the programme ranges from extra-curriculum activities for senior elementary-school students from Budapest and class activities for senior elementaryand secondary-school students to announcing a correspondence competition for senior elementary-school students of non-Budapest schools (A Marathoner Mosaic, results were announced in May 2003). Our certified training course (The World of Antiquity) provides an opportunity for high-school teachers to make their knowledge in the subject more through. The junior research student system, which had been launched in the previous year, had been retained in compliance with the original plans. We have succeeded in raising the number of trainees from five in the previous year to the projected six. The programme is fully financed by the professional allowances in the Museum's budget. The regularly meeting research forum of our institution is the studio colloquium ("tea party"), meeting each month to listen to a thematic lecture and talk shop. The Museum also organized a symposium last year, under the title Aegyptus et Pannónia.