REACH project local encounter: Mini-conference “The Roma Heritage of the 8th district”

Share

IMG_7649The conference was co-organized by ELTE, Eötvös Loránd University, Faculty of Humanities, together with the students of the Cultural Heritage MA programme of the Atelier department.
The students completed a research during the first semester in three groups: they had been researching the community, the musical and the fine arts heritage of the Roma community in the 8th district.
During the research, they were cooperating with the local REACH partners and other stakeholders (like Glove Factory/Kesztyűgyár, the local Roma minority Self-Government, the Budapest Roma Cultural and Educational Centre (FROKK) and several Roma artists (musicians, painters who are also involved in community building practices).

The conference included two key-note lectures. Péter Szuhay, former director of the Roma collection in the Museum of Ethnography presented a digital repository entitled the Virtual House of Roma Culture. Tibor Sándor, head of Budapest Collection, Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library, Budapest talked about the Topotéka project of 8th district (http://jozsefvaros.topothek.at/).

The key-note lectures were followed by the three presentations held by the MA students:
1. Adrienn Tóth, Tamás Tüske, Zsófia Vajda and Bianka Vilonya: The role of the individual in Roma community-building
2. Anett Jánosi, Melinda Lovag, Zsófia Szalai, Julianna Szántó and Edina Szathmári: Roma fine-arts through the lens of contemporary artists
Anna Klára Andor, Dóra Nagy, Sára Kónya and Gergely Szabó: From the “Mátyás University” to the Mátyás Pince

IMG_7724

The third section of the conference comprised a round table discussion about the possibilities of institutionalizing Roma heritage, the participants were Eszter György, István Gábor Molnár, president of Roma Minority Self-Government, Újpest; founder and director of Roma Local History Collection, Újpest and Kálmán Káli-Horváth, actor, painter and committee member of the future Cziffra Centre (Roma Cultural Centre, to be opened in the 8th district in 2020)

IMG_7677The conference was accompanied by a photo-exhibition. Gyula Nyári’s photo document the Roma cultural events that took place in the 8th district over the past two-three decades. Some of the places, institutions depicted on the photos do not exist anymore so the pictures are extremely important in maintaining the collective Roma memory of the district.

 

 

The event was very successful, over 50 people attended the conference and besides the university students, a lot of different stakeholders and representatives of other, Roma or non-Roma cultural and educational institutions came (Tom Lantos Institute, CEU, University of Debrecen, etc).

 

Poster of the event

 

For more information, articles in Hungarian are available here and here

 

Leave a Reply


Related Articles

Roma Heritage:the case study of the REACH project
Last 19 February, Dr György Eszter, interviewed by the “HALLGATOI MAGAZINE” reported her direct experience in carrying on the case study of the minority heritage pilot within the REACH project. Dr György, presented a global overview of the objectives, initiatives and main results achieved by the pilot, pointing out how its activities and especially the local encounters revealed the potential of future cooperation between stakeholders by identifying opportunities of cross-collaboration. the inte...
REACH Local Encounter: "Intangible Roma cultural heritage in Hungary – Communities and particip...
The 21th May a local encounter organized by Elte University, task leader of Minority Heritage Pilot, was held at  the Gandhi Secondary School, located in Pécs; this is the first secondary school in Europe, devoted to preparing young Roma for higher education and teaches Roma history and culture as well as Beash and Romani languages. The aim is to produce future Roma intellectuals committed to the cause of the Roma and the continuation of Roma language and culture. In 2017, the pedagogic met...
REACH at the Faro Convention research-action workshop
The second Faro Convention research-action workshop “Cross-fertilization roads between Heritage and Participatory Citizenship” took place in Huelva (Spain) the 3-4 December. It focused on the actual organization of  “heritage communities” to both manage such enlarged “cultural heritage” and participate effectively in its governance. Involving both civil society (heritage communities) and academia (Universities), it discussed the various governance models and practices most adapted in achi...
REACH project local encounter: Preservation, re-use and management of Roma cultural heritage
The REACH local encounter was hosted by the Roma Country House in Hodász, founded in 2001, which is the first similar institution in Hungary. The country house, located in an extremely deprived sub-region in North-Eastern Hungary is not only undertaking an eminent role in preserving the Roma traditions but also in local community-building and in ensuring diverse artistic and professional activities to the children and teenagers of the village. The event stared with the visit of the different bu...