Leading artists have voiced strong opposition against what they describe as an “capricious restructuring” of Belgium’s museum landscape, as regional authorities aim to cut public spending by dismantling the operations of the country’s most historic modern art institution and relocating its entire collection to a different urban center.
Directors Decry ‘Flagrant Illegalities’ in Sector Shake-up
At a Tuesday briefing in Antwerp, the leadership of the city’s Museum of Contemporary Art (M HKA), established in 1985, denounced what they called the “flagrant illegalities” of the museum sector shake-up, a plan due to be discussed in the national legislature this Friday.
“Antwerp is Flanders’ biggest city, with a legacy as a home of the cutting-edge in Belgium,” stated renowned painter Luc Tuymans, an Antwerp-based artist broadly regarded as Belgium’s most influential contemporary creator.
“To demote a museum to an exhibition space is utterly irrational. You cannot just take a collection of artworks and transfer it into a different environment, because such an ecosystem does not exist,” Tuymans continued.
Unexpected Decision Cancels €80m Project, Relocates Collection
In October, the culture minister of the Flemish government cancelled the planned construction of a new, purpose-built €80m high-rise building to house the institution, and announced plans to relocate its collection of some 8,000 pieces to Ghent’s Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (Smak). This surprise move will in effect strip the Antwerp institution of its official museum designation.
The M HKA’s collection features works by globally renowned creators such as Kerry James Marshall, Anish Kapoor and Marina Abramović.
“I do not accept that my works might be taken away from M HKA or potentially endangered as part of any structural reshuffling,” stated British artist Kapoor in a communication to the culture ministry.
Budget Pressures Motivate Austerity in Arts Sector
The country is confronting a fiscal shortfall of 5.4% of GDP, one of the largest in the eurozone. The arts sector specifically is facing significant reductions, with austerity measures also suggesting an unclear fate for the new Brussels Kanal museum.
According to the plans of Minister Caroline Gennez, the museum sector would be consolidated so that art collections in the Flanders region are concentrated at three beacon museums for historical, modern and contemporary art.
The region boasts a plethora of contemporary art museums: besides M HKA in Antwerp and Smak in Ghent, there is Musea Brugge in Bruges and Museum M in Leuven.
Financial Inspectorate Questions Cost-Saving Logic
Whether the proposed shake-up would actually lower costs has been challenged by Belgium’s financial inspectorate. In a report addressed to the minister in October, it gave an unfavourable opinion on the plans, indicating their impact on the budget would be “partial and incomplete”.
Although moving the museum’s permanent collection could cut running expenses from approximately €8m to €5m, it is believed that going forward the Antwerp institution would have to spend money to borrow works or buy in exhibitions to draw audiences.
Ghent’s Smak, situated roughly an hour’s train ride from the M HKA, is also thought to currently not have sufficient room to adequately store M HKA’s collection, and would need investment to increase its storage capacity.
