It is always an exciting thing when an old building got a surprisingly new function after a decade of loneliness. In this case the former brewery of Henrik Haggenmacher (which was the second largest after Antal Dreher’s) became home to more than twenty artists and creative companies. In the former factory, there are ateliers, studios, exhibitions, lecture halls, community spaces, and they also have a residency program for foreign artists.

Over the years Art Quarter Budapest has grown to become an independent cultural institution and dynamic center of contemporary arts that hosts a wide diversity of creative activities. They

• give space to a continuously growing collective of progressive Hungarian artists mostly coming from the field of visual arts;
• run a unique Artist-in-Residence Program for international artists, providing housing and studio space. They welcome artists from all fields including music, visual arts, circus, film, literature, theater, dance and performance;
• curate exhibitions in their own gallery space;
• organize exhibitions at other venues in Hungary and abroad;
• offer an outdoor performance venue for music, theater, dance and circus, and indoor concert destination in the Spatial Sound Institute, for foreign performing art groups touring in Hungary;
• provide a state-of-the-art premises for professional events such as workshops and conferences;
• launch independent art projects and participate in their implementation in collaboration with domestic and foreign partner organizations.

The AQB is typically a venue for exhibitions and programs, but it is also a great experience to explore the building itself. Contemporary forms and solutions mixed with characteristic signs of industrial past and heritage, and of course the nostalgic traces of the past era before the regime change. Must see for every art lovers!