The Museum of Ethnography Wins the Multimedia and Design Oscars

At the Dubai festival, the International Council of Museums (ICOM) rewarded the multimedia network of the Museum of Ethnography’s new permanent exhibition, which brings to life the stories of more than 3,600 original objects on a floor area of 3,000 square metres through interactive maps, animations and films, as well as the EthnoFusion application, which combines the experience of musical creation with our folk music heritage. The victory in Dubai was the highlight of the year, as the Museum of Ethnography closed a record-breaking year in 2025: it won two Red Dot awards, reached the finals of the Luigi Micheletti Prize, its exhibition “Székelyek – Örökség mintázatok” (The Székely People – Heritage Patterns) won the title Exhibition of the Year 2025, and its publication, the ZOOM catalogue, brought home three international design awards. As the Red Dot is known as the “Oscar of the design world”, the museum has joined the elite of the international profession thanks to these achievements. In 2025, the Museum of Ethnography not only collected accolades but also completed the largest digital relocation in the history of Hungarian museology thanks to a new development. The success of the Museum of Ethnography is also another triumph for the Liget Budapest Project: the City Park has been renewed, become greener and more liveable, and has now become an internationally recognised cultural centre.

With its iconic building realised within the framework of the Liget Budapest Project, the Museum of Ethnography has already made its mark on the international architectural scene, winning more than two dozen prestigious awards. This time, however, international attention turned inside the pixel-decorated glass façade: the profession recognised the exhibition experience itself and the museum’s innovative content. The two awards won in Dubai, presented as part of ICOM’s 27th General Conference, were received for the museum’s two projects: “A Polyphonic Museum Experience – the Multimedia Network of the Museum of Ethnography’s Permanent Exhibition” and EthnoFusion – “Create Your Own Zither Melody and Share It with Others”. The AVICOM awards are among the museum profession’s most important global recognitions in the area of digital innovation. The accolade conferred by the special committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) confirms that the developments of the Hungarian institution are among the best and most advanced museum projects in the world, pointing the way for the future of presenting our heritage.

One of the award-winning developments is the networked multimedia system interwoven with the museum’s entire permanent exhibition, which opened in autumn 2024. Sometimes playful, sometimes entertaining, sometimes visually striking or offering moments of reflection, the multimedia solutions of this system signify a new approach to interpreting cultural heritage: interactive maps, films, animations and data visualisations help visitors explore multilayered connections. The other award-winning development is the online, freely accessible EthnoFusion application with its spectacular and intuitive interface encouraging creative learning, discovery and community sharing by enabling users to mix original folk instruments with modern musical bases and effects and to download or share their mixes.

Thanks in part to the recognitions the Museum of Ethnography received this year, Liget Budapest has become Europe’s largest cultural urban development programme with more than fifty domestic and international awards. In the first decade of the renewal of the City Park, more than thirteen million people have visited its already realised developments. As a result of the park renovations, the Main Playground, the Városliget Sports Centre, the dog experience parks and the revived Mihály Mőcsényi Botanical Garden enjoy great popularity. The new and renewed cultural institutions implemented as part of the Liget Budapest project have become new landmarks of Hungary: the House of Music Hungary, the Museum of Ethnography, the revitalised Museum of Fine Arts and the House of the Hungarian Millennium are regularly featured in international tourism offers, and operate at full capacity. In addition, the green areas of the City Park have been fundamentally renewed and expanded by important new parts: more than 270,000 square metres of green space have been revitalised, 72,000 square metres of paving have been removed, and more than 500 trees, 70,000 shrubs and 200,000 perennials have been planted, while the pedestrianisation of the City Park has also begun.