Budapest’s MKE is turning this year’s Night of Museums into a public route through spaces where art history, teaching and contemporary practice meet. The program, titled “Behind the Scenes of Creation,” will run across two university sites: the main building at Andrássy út 69-71 and Epreskert, the secluded garden and studio complex at Kmety György utca 26-28.
Visitors will thus be able to enter one of Hungary’s most important art education institutions after hours and see how a working academy functions as a heritage site, a workshop environment and a platform for young artists.
One of the main events of the evening will be the guided palace walk following the Károly Lotz frescoes. Art historian Anikó Bojtos will introduce the recently restored works, covering their history, symbolism, technical features and the challenges of restoration. The Hungarian-language tours, scheduled for 5 and 6:30 p.m., require advance registration and offer visitors a rare chance to see the murals in the architectural setting for which they were created.
The MKE’s library, archives and art collection will be open from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. The library will present its history and selected treasures while offering family-oriented activities built around art-historical motifs: coloring sheets, puzzles, pairing games linked to Lotz’s allegorical frescoes, quizzes and crosswords.
In the Barcsay Hall, the exhibition “Prix Fixe: Étvágygyakorlatok” uses the metaphor of a restaurant menu to rethink how visitors “consume” art. Curated by students of the Department of Art Theory, the exhibition asks whether viewing art can produce reactions comparable to a gastronomic experience. The curators also reflect on overproduction and overconsumption. The exhibition opens at 6 p.m. and is free to view until midnight.
The main building program also includes a 7:30 p.m. screening of “Majd a tisztáson,” a 72-minute Hungarian-Spanish documentary about painter Péter Molnár. Later in the evening, the Department of Conservation will open its studios, showing how teachers and students in painting and wooden sculpture conservation work with historical objects, conduct material analysis and apply restoration methods.
At 9 p.m., visitors can enter the Anatomy Department’s collection with Prof. Frigyes Kőnig, a Munkácsy Prize-winning artist and professor emeritus. The collection includes anatomical teaching objects, rare animal specimens, and tools once used for facial reconstruction.
The Epreskert garden is home to MKE’s Sculpture Department. Guided walks called “Epreskert Stories” will be led by art historian and professional guide László B. Bóka at 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., both with advance registration, recalling the garden’s old studios and episodes from its more colorful past, when artist Alajos Strobl held bohemian gatherings there.
From 7 p.m. to midnight, Epreskert will also host the diploma exhibition of graduating sculpture students. At 9 p.m., the stone sculpture and mural conservation workshops will open to demonstrate conservation practices. Visitors will be able to see how specialists work on historical monuments and the materials, tools and methods used to preserve damaged works.
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of June 19, 2026.
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