Pécs2010 Management - Artistic Board

Erika Koncz

Erika Koncz, the deputy director-general of the Museum of Applied Arts was born on April 10, 1955. She first pursued her studies at the Teacher Training College of Debrecen in public education and library studies between 1973 and 1977, and then graduated from Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Faculty of Humanities, in public education in 1981. In 2000 she took a specialist examination in civil services.

She began her professional career as an executive in public education at the Honvéd Sports Club in Budapest. Between 1978 and 1987 she was responsible for overseeing the professional training and further training of young athletes and for organising their cultural programmes while being on foreign tours. Between 1987 and 1989 she was the leader of the cultural house run by the Military College of Szentendre. Beyond organising programmes for the institution, she was also responsible for organising cultural programmes for college students in Budapest.

She went to work for the Section of Investment and Cultural Development of the Economic Department of the Ministry of Education and Culture on May 15, 1989, where her main task was to prepare medium-term development concepts for the cultural institutions that belonged to the Ministry, among others, the reconstruction of the Museum of Applied Arts. After the political transition in 1989 she became the cabinet leader, then the head of the department of the Under-Secretary of State for Economic Matters. In 1994 she was invited to work as deputy head of the Department of Human Resources Management, and then in 1996 the head of the Department of Arts. As the head of the department, her main task was to define the concept and the function of a basic national institution and transform cultural institutions that did not belong to this basic category into non-profit organisations.

From 1999 to 2002 she headed the Cultural Department of the Budapest Mayor's Office. As the head of this Department, she was not only in charge of the largest artistic institutions and events of the capital but she was also responsible for the largest public collections of Budapest, including the Budapest Museum of History, the Szabó Ervin Library, the Budapest Archives and several other cultural enterprises functioning as foundations, associations or not-profit organisations. This was the time when the development of the Aquincum Museum of the Budapest Museum of History and the renewal of the central building of the Szabó Ervin Library took place, which became an intellectual centre for the young intelligentsia. At about the same time the theatres of the capital began to be transformed into non-profit organisations and the consolidation of the Festival Orchestra also took place.

In 2002 Minister of Culture Gábor Görgey nominated her the Under-Secretary of the Ministry of National Cultural Heritage responsible for Cultural Heritage and Public Collections. During this period she managed to ensure that a significantly larger amount of the national budget was allocated for public education and public collections. A new, comprehensive programme called „Alpha“ was worked out in the field of developing museums, another programme modernised the library services of small cities and villages, while a third one called „Public Property“ addressed the issue of urban cultural development.

Since July 1, 2006 she has been working as the director-general of the Museum Of Applied Arts. She considers it to be her mission to renew the public relations and marketing work of the Museum. As a result of these efforts, the number of visitors doubled in 2007 and the Museum converged with the museums with the richest programmes in education. Her institution was awarded the special Prize of Museum Education in 2007.

As of January 2008 she is member and head of the Committee of the National Cultural Fund.