Cambridge Szeged Society exhibition

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Since 1987, Cambridge has had a twin city in Hungary. 2012 was a great celebration of the 25th Anniversary – yet relatively few people know of the delights of our sister city, or even that it exists.

Let us inform you better!

Szeged is some 2 hours south of Budapest, has a beautiful , homogenous city centre, in honey coloured stone – built after the great flood in 1869 – and is near the edge of the flat great plain. It is on the river Tizsa the second of Hungary’s rivers (after the Danube). Szeged has been destroyed by flood in the past, and the rising river can still cause consternation and cover the road along the bank with great rapidity. There is a lovely University and library – and some wonderfully warm and welcoming people. It has an opera house and orchestra, 4 music schools, galleries and thermal baths. If you have not yet been there, try it! There are some wonderful events during the year – music festivals, wine festivals, fish soup festivals…All with their own particular atmosphere of hospitality and friendliness.

The Cambridge Szeged Society was set up some 8 or 9 years after the twinning arrangement was signed and over the last decade has developed enormously. Each year there is an annual programme of concerts and talks, since 2005 a local artist has been sponsored to attend the wonderful May Bridge Fair – coinciding with the wine festival. In 2010, 3 Szegedi artists came to Cambridge as part of the “switch-swap” exhibition exchange. That year also saw a rowing regatta in Szeged – and both the Cambridge town and university boats were soundly beaten by their hosts.

The 25th Anniversary in 2012 included celebrations not only the usual annual crop of 3 talks (inter alia by our MEP Andrew Duff, and another by GeoGebra – on their joint project with Szeged University on the methods of teaching mathematics) & 4 concerts, with local and internationally renowned performers. It also included a collaboration with Anglia Ruskin University for a season of films from Eastern Europe on “childhood and the holocaust”, and also an evening celebrating the centenary of John Halas – the Hungarian animation specialist (of Halas & Bachelor) – with a talk by his daughter Vivien Halas.

The autumn brought an Exhibition by Erem Verde – the only mint in Hungary doing celebratory medals & coins – hosted by the Whipple Museum. In the middle of that month of October, there was also a 3 day event at the Grafton Centre – a showcase for Hungarian food, wine and crafts, and Hungarian folk dancers who put on a lively display.

At fairly short notice, we were asked to devise a programme for a visit to Cambridge by a student group from Hungary – winners of a national competition organised by Szeged university for projects on Albert Szent Geyorgy – the Szeged scientist who established the importance of vitamin C, while doing his PhD at Cambridge in the 1920’s. This proved another very successful collaboration between the Society and the University.

Anglia Ruskin University also has an Erasmus scheme for exchange of postgraduates & lecturers – with Prof. Szonyi here for most of 2009. There is a huge amount going on – come and join us to find out more! Membership is free and our aims are to foster ever better relations with Szeged (Europe’s friendliest city in 2007) and promote interest in Hungarian culture and matters generally.

2013 starts with this wonderful Art Exhibition – all the local artists sponsored to go to Szeged from 2005 onwards, as well as some input from the Szeged artists from 2010. We look forward to another excellent year.

Julia Seiber Boyd, Chair Cambridge Szeged Society

The list of sponsored artists who have been to Szeged:

2005 - Joan Orlov

2006 - Gordon Morrison

2007 - Joy Voisey

2008 - Nicholas James Juett

2009 - Orlando Johnson

2010 - Isabel Stemp

2011 - Deanna Tyson

2012 - Katie Maynard