Hungary/ 8.4 Amateur arts, cultural associations and civil initiatives  

8.4.2 Cultural houses and community cultural clubs

Although political control of the communist system over the "houses of culture" caused them harm after the fall of that regime, the network of multi-purpose cultural institutions all over the country has re-gained its position. These institutions give homes to the cultural associations and amateur groups in all sectors of culture. Although they run programmes that may be labelled as adult education, social policy or youth policy, and many of them act as public Internet centres etc., in Hungary "művelÅ‘dési házak" (local community centres or socio-cultural institutions) have always been considered part of the cultural sector. In a number of smaller towns and villages local cultural policy is almost synonymous with maintaining the house of culture, absorbing the greater part of the cultural budget.

Table 14:   Local community culture, 2000-2011

Source:     Central Statistical Office.

Of the 3 660 socio-cultural institutions in the country in 2008, 767 reported that they carried out services for one or more cultural minorities, with the following foremost: Gypsies 439, Germans 288, Slovaks 110 and Croats 89.

The most important recent development in this area is the considerable share this sector receives from the European Structural Funds in the framework of the New Hungary Development Plan 2007-2013, as presented at chapter 4.1. In addition to the existing network, a new type of institution, the Integrated Community Service Spaces was established in the frame of the rural development programme of the EU. The hundreds of such IKSZT-s created in settlements with less than 5 000 inhabitants have cultural services too, among their functions.

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