The support of the cultural institutions of minorities
The Hungarian Museum of Ethnography and museums maintained by counties or settlements collect the tangible artefacts produced by minorities in Hungary. As all counties have or had inhabitants who belong to a national minority, all county-level museum organizations are obliged to pertbrm tasks related to minorities. The sections of the Szentendre Open Air Museum of Ethnography exhibits German, Croatian, Slovak, Roma, Ruthenian and Greek buildings, artefacts and documents; moreover, several events of minority folklore are organised ever year. The scope of collection of other Hungarian open air museums of ethnography involves the tangible culture of other minorities.
In recent years, the national self-governments of minorities have established several institutions that collect artefacts worth to be housed in museums and perform the professional management of collections. With the amount allocated for the framework of minority institutions by the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice, the Serbian Institute opened in Budapest, the Slovenian Village Museum (KUhar Emlekh:iz) in Fels6szOlnOk and the August Senoa Croatian Club in Pees. The organizations below operate as institutions of national self-governments: the Christian Collection of Croatians in Hungary in Peresznye, Vas county (established by the National Self-Government for the Croatian Minority), the National Roma Library and Archives, the National Roma Collection of Public Interest and Gallery, the Museum and Archives of the Polish in Hungary, the National Ruthenian Collection of Public Interest and Gallery, the Library of Ruthenians in Hungary, the Slovak Centre of Documentation and Legatum Kft., a professional organization of Slovak village museums.
Having regard to the fact that these collections and village museums of the cultures of national minorities are, at the same time, museums that hold operating licences, they are eligible for funds from the state budget. Such funds are accessible through the call for proposals published by the Department of Museums of the National Cultural Fund or from the resources targeted at the professional support of museums maintained by local self-governments. In the period from 2008 to 2010, the objectives of the calls for proposals for the development of national minorities' museums included the preparation and creation of permanent exhibitions, full renovation or modernization, as well as - defined as a specific objective - the creation of a section of exhibition that displays the values of the cultures of national or ethnic minorities and the publication of catalogues, guides, information leaflets and electronic guides related the exhibitions (in several foreign languages).
With regard to the recommendations of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (adopted in Paris on 17 October 2003), national minorities may be involved in inventorying heritage. A significant part of the extending institutional system of national self-governments of minorities is made up of independent cultural institutions or multi-faceted institutions whose scope includes, among others, cultural activities. The state finances these institutions with integrating the amount into the annual budget of the given national self-government of minorities. For example, the documents prepared by the Slovak self-government for the Charter country report states that 'as specified in the Budgetary Act as a separate budgetary item, support ofHUF 105.8 million is given from the national budget to the cultural institutes of the National Self-Government of the Slovaks.