Romedia Benefits from Budapest Business Bidders
Philanthropy was in full flow in the Hungarian capital on November 24 as private businessmen and women from across the city pledged their money to various ambitious cultural projects. The Romedia Foundation was among ten selected organizations to present their work and, after a short video (to be posted here soon!) was screened, we received a sizeable donation which will allow the “Requiem for Auschwitz” project to take its first steps on the rewarding road to completion.
- The cultural auction has become a significant and popular annual event in Budapest
The project is dedicated to remembering Pharrajimos when hundreds of thousands of Roma perished in the extermination perpetrated under the Nazi regime during the Second World War.
Hungary’s largest circulating political daily newspaper “Nepszabadsag” were watching closely and reported on a resounding success for Romedia and the other nine cultural innovators. The paper is published only in Hungarian so our Hungarian speaking friends can read the article here while everyone else can check out the English translation of part of the article below:
“Glory can be shared Sponsorship – The Maecenas Day cultural auction was held for the seventh time at the Budapest Art Hall (Műcsarnok)
The unconventional auction was held for the seventh time on Thursday evening in Budapest’s Art Hall. Here, people bid against each other not to get works of art or rare and special nick-nacks, but culture. To be more precise, ten cultural projects deemed by the organizers’ committee to be outstandingly important can be “bought”.
“I wish there were more snobs! Culture would be much better off.” András Török, the director of Summa Artium Nonprofit company answers smilingly when asked about the target group of the Maecenas Day auction.
“The biggest competition was for Project Number 9. The Romedia Foundation is raising funds for a 3D video mapping projection and a Roma festival it is organizing as part of a large-scale European series of concerts and events held in remembrance of the Roma Holocaust. With their 3 million Hungarian Forint win, their task has been made that much easier.
“As András Török says, the organizing committee chooses projects that could be difficult or impossible to finance without private patrons.”
It was a truly tremendous night for the Foundation but the hard work doesn’t stop there. Using this dynamic new form of media will be a fresh and innovative challenge, one that Romedia is going to relish.
For those of you wondering “what on earth is 3D video mapping?” here is a stunning example of this new imaginative and creative new art form:
The Romedia Foundation wishes to express its heartfelt gratitude for the generosity shown by the bidding parties at the cultural auction and we are also very grateful to Andras Torok and the organizing committee for putting on such a heartwarming event.