Resisting Hungary’s Recentralization of Art Institutions: The Case of the Studio of Young Artists

Since 2010, cultural institutions in Hungary have become increasingly centralized under FIDESZ, the nationalist, right-wing party led by president Viktor Orban. This centralization has been exemplified by the legalization of the Hungarian Art Academy (MMA), which monopolizes the distribution of grants by the National Cultural fund and the Liget Budapest project, currently under construction, which will unify various museums under state control, such as the Museum of Fine Arts, the Hungarian National Gallery, and The Museum of Ethnography. In this nationalist and authoritarian context, which reflects a global trend towards “soft dictatorships,” organizations such as the Studio of Young Artists, take on a renewed and vital importance. Part of the Artists Union during socialism, the Studio was founded in 1958 as the venue for young and emerging artists. Despite going through multiple changes in recent decades, the Studio continues to maintained its original socialist mandate of supporting its more than 500 members with exhibition and studio space as well as project development and art sales. I argue that the Studio enacts and maintains an instance of civil society through its horizontal leadership and its recent attempts to circumvent the state’s control.