Savaria - A Vas Megyei Múzeumok értesítője 24/3. (1997) (Szombathely, 1997)

Horváth Sándor: Aranyegyensúly (Bándi Gábor, mint muzeológus)

THE GOLDEN MEAN GÁBOR BANDI, THE MUSEOLOGIST With the posthumous 'For County Vas' medal, given on 15 , March of 1999, the 'ungrateful, unfaithful sweetheart', i.e. county Vas, bow to the memory of the excellent museologist with a 15 year delay. Although there is catachresis in the first sentence, the historical genuineness required the above words. It is difficult to speak about Gábor Bandi, the museologist, not only for the mentioned reason, but because the successor talks about the predecessor. The successor, who had learnt the ins and outs of the museum work from this very predecessor of him. So writing these few lines is like an examination for me. Gábor Bándi's barely 15 year work in Szombathely and county Vas contributed to the most excellent period of the institutes of the Directorate of Museums in County Vas. Without him, the network of museums in the county would not have thrived. I believe in this despite knowing that there was also a dark side of that period. I believe in this despite knowing that that was a period of extensive development for the museums of the country in general. On 1

st of February 1973, he began his work in Szombathely as the youngest director of a county museum in the country. His first action was to create the Education and Propaganda Department. Its members worked, with our day's expression, on the area of museum pedagogy and museum marketing. We can say that he was a manager type leader from the beginning. With this, I believe, that he was ahead of his time with quite a few years. That was the reason why his situation became absurd in the county during the years. He insisted on the specialisation from the beginning. In his first year in county Vas, he established the Collection Group of Fine Arts and Crafts in the Savaria Museum. His life-long principle is shown in the annual reports: the high professional standard is a basic condition of the museum work. It can be done in several places, scattered in several museums, but the co-operation, the collaboration of the trade, or in other words the centralisation, is needed for the appropriate general standard. Centralisation in the county and in the country, as well. In the county network, he pushed on separate planning and working by trade. He opposed the parallel research, solving separate parts of the same problem. He saw the general education as a mission of equal rank to the scientific researchingexploring work of the museums. He fought for the scientific rank of the museums. As a result, the museum network of county Vas was one of the museum groups which were awarded to be a research institute. He shared his ideas for the national, even international thinking-together, and as a result the continuous improvement in quality, and in fact, he helped their realisation. From 1980, he, together with Tibor Kovács, edited the Museum Bulletin (Museum's Bulletin), the periodical of the Museum Department of the Cultural Ministry. He was also enthusiastic organiser and active participant of events of the profession. It was not accidental that he was the author of the article titled 'The maintenance and management problems of the Hungarian museum network'. In his concentrated summarising in 1984, on the columns of the Museum Bulletin (Museum's Bulletin), he discussed the way which led to the that day's situation from 1960 to 1982, then he listed the missed opportunities, and finally, he put forward proposals to improve the situation. Thinking back, it seems to have been the last step for the communist leaders' anger at him, as he wrote in this article that because of the contradiction between the decentralised maintenance of the museums by the county council and the attempt at a more centralised professional leading led to the missed opportunities. In his opinion, there were seven things to be done for finding the way out: 1. situation report: by quick analysis of the law and outlining the negative tendencies; 2. the reconstruction of the nation-wide role of the KMI (Central Directorate of Museums); 3. establishment of more manageable museum organisations by closing down the obsolete exhibition rooms; 4. introduction of income-oriented economy, with the profit used to reach professional targets; 5. 'two-circle control'- national and county-wide; 6. regular further education organised by the centre of the museums; 7. a new museum rule. If we think it over, we will see that almost all the above mentioned tasks are still waiting for realisation, although the law about the protection of the cultural inheritance in the end of 1997 made a framework for the new museum law. Naturally, we should mention some facts from the work of Gábor Bandi as the director of the museums of county Vas to demonstrate the immense development linked to his name. It is impossible to list everything, but one example in every year would clarify his two concise sentences in the 1984 report: 11