Founders’ message

I was born into a family of educators. My mother, father, grandmother, and aunt all devoted their lives to nurturing children. My grandfather, Mihály Bácskai—one of the founders of the Hungarian student theatre movement—was a true artist of connection. There was always another child in our home: someone joining us for lunch, dancing, reciting a poem, or sometimes even staying with us for a while. The everyday life of the student theatre remains one of my most beautiful childhood memories. As little children, my brother Dávid and I were always wandering around the world of the arts, laughing and crying along with the actors when my grandfather—“Mr. Ska” as everyone called him—played out the stories of life with his students.
These experiences taught me how essential play is within the arts. From this grew the idea of Blum: that even the youngest children should be able to play freely with the arts.

A Blum kultúra generációs örökség.

The philosophy of Blum is a generational legacy.

After twenty years of committed teamwork, I have come to see that children are most deeply reached through the adults around them. This insight is the most important message of our two decades of work and one of the foundations of the Blum philosophy. It is a transfer effect: the well-being of adults can be observed in the well-being of children. The more playful the adult becomes, the more the child flourishes. Today, this understanding is supported not only by our observations and the lived experiences of those who have participated in the program, but also by research findings.

Play well.

Connect well.

Márti Bácskai

Founder & Director
Play • Connect • Blum™