A long-awaited gathering became a fun afternoon, as the Museum sponsored a “Re-opening event” on July 17th, featuring the opening of a new exhibit. After a short introduction by past-president Alex Kézdi, János Szigeti, our current president, took to the podium. He read the letters sent on behalf of Ambassador Szabolcs Takács and Mr. Tamás Kovács, The Consul General of Hungary in Chicago. Both were invited but were unable to attend but they extended their congratulations, with the Consul General and the Community Diplomat expressing how convinced they were of the extraordinary wealth of the Museum’s collection and the commitment of the volunteers when they visited Cleveland at the end of May.
Afterwards János introduced Andrew Lázár to explain the new exhibit entitled: ” Celebrating 35 Years of Exhibits”. During his introduction, János expressed the following sentiment: “Bandi has been our Exhibits Director, Curator for thirty-six years, and as such, our only Exhibits Director, Curator. Bandi has created and displayed no less than sixty-eight Museum Exhibits from April 1986 through November 2019.” He also thanked Ari, Bandi’s wife, for preparing the technical portion of the exhibits with the tablets. He then honored Bandi with a beautifully framed Certificate of Recognition”.
This was a celebration not only of “coming alive” after over a year of being closed due to the Covid pandemic, but of honoring the curator of exhibits, the mainstay of a museum. Over 100 friends of the Museum were present and everyone was in a festive mood. It was wonderful to see so many people gathered again inside the Museum. So many comments of appreciation and compliments of the exhibits were expressed. The assembled lingered around the two tables of refreshments and one table of drinks, including wine. The atmosphere was made more festive by wonderful, lively music performed by Harmonia.
As most of you know, the Museum is operated by the Board and its volunteers. We gratefully acknowledge every Board member and Volunteer who contributed to this festive occasion.
We hope to see our friends and supporters at our future events! A viszontlátásra!
(Reflections on this special Museum Reopening event are based on remarks prepared by Eva Szabó, Board member and past President of the Museum….)
I visited the museum after the opening and it was beautiful and very interesting!!
Thank you sooo much for all of your hard work!!
Maria Kovacs Newberry