Benkő Andrea: A Guide to Petőfi Literary Museum (Budapest, 2009)
Professional Relations
PROFESSIONAL RELATIONS International relations The Petőfi Literary Museum collaborates on exhibitions, skills-sharing, and research with many international partners. These partnerships bring new insights into the collection, and help create new understandings of our changing world. Our museum has taken part in the work of ICLM (International Committee of Literature Museums), a branch of ICOM (International Council of Museums), since its inception and we have been fortunate in finding partners in Europe and further afield who want to collaborate on exhibitions, skills sharing and research for mutual benefit. As a result of such cooperations our museum hosted the Henrich Heine, Checkov, Stanislaw Wyspiansky, Tolstoy, Goethe's Thuringia drawings, Alexis Kiwi and Witkiewitz exhibitions from Weimar, Prague, Helsinki, Warsaw and Moscow. As a result of more recent series of reciprocal relationships and collaborative projects with cultural organisations and governments we could show the Hungarian public the Balzac exhibition and Andre Kertész's photographs from Paris the Herman Hesse exhibition from Frankfurt, Horst Janssen's drawings from Hamburg, the Karen Blixen exhibition from Rungstedlund and the Ingeborg Bachmann exhibition from Vienna. Over recent years the Petőfi Literary Museum has also had a lot of touring exhibitions abroad. In 2006 as part of the German-Hungarian Cultural Programme, Bipolar, our exhibition Germans in Hungary -Hungarians in Germany went to Berlin and Ulm. Our Márai exhibition was on in London and Essen and our photo exhibition Photographes Hongroises visited Vire, France. In 2007 and 2008 Hommage to György Buday was on in London, the Berlin is our Paris today - Hungarian Writers' Experiences in Berlin was taken to Berlin, the Márai exhibition travelled to Santiago de Chile and our Hommage a Kassák went to Bratislava and Opava. Our Feuve Hongrois 1904-1914 exhibition was visited by 60 00 people at the Musée d'art moderne in Céret. Our most recent travelling exhibitions to date are the Hungarian Women photographers 1900-1945 in Washington and the Márai exhibition in San Diego and then in Columbia. The Petőfi Literary Museum gains hugely through the new contacts developed with the management and colleagues of the French Fédération des Maisons d'Ecrivain based in Bourges and the German ALG (Atbeitsgemeinschaft Literarische Gesellschaften und Gedenkstätten). Partnerships with these umbrella organisations also help to keep lines of communication open between nations and foster an international community of inquiry and research. Balzac, the author and the dandy. Exhibition from the Maison de Balzac Collection of Paris (25th March-31 st May 2002) Association of Literary Memorial Houses The Petőfi Literary Museum is more than just collections or the community of colleagues: it is an integrating force along the lines of literature and museology. As a professionally highly regarded, national institution, The Petőfi Literary Museum, has been responsible for the professional work of the more than sixty literary memorial houses all over the country for more than fifty years. The invaluable contribution of the memorial houses to Hungarian national identity has always been a crucial element of our work. Our responsibilities have included providing long term museum loans from our collections or professional support in setting up new exhibitions. In 2008 the museum initiated the foundation of the Association of Literary Memorial Houses to bring to an end the isolated practices of the houses and create a national network out of them. We aim to encourage their opening up for new partnerships mainly with key players of public education and cultural tourism. A unified image of the memorial houses, which represent an important part of our cultural heritage, is also reflected on our website, www.mire.hu,www.emlekhazak.hu. 31
