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Prominent artists have raised their voices in protest against what they label as an “capricious restructuring” of Belgium’s cultural scene, as the Flanders government aim to cut public spending by dismantling the nation’s oldest contemporary art gallery and transplanting its complete holdings to another city.

Leaders Condemn ‘Flagrant Illegalities’ in Museum Overhaul

At a Tuesday briefing in Antwerp, the directors of the city’s Museum of Contemporary Art (M HKA), established in 1985, decried what they called the “flagrant illegalities” of the cultural institution reorganization, a plan due to be debated in Belgium’s parliament this Friday.

“Antwerp is Flanders’ biggest city, with a legacy as a home of the cutting-edge in Belgium,” said Luc Tuymans, an Antwerp-based artist broadly regarded as Belgium’s most influential living artist.

“To degrade a museum to an arts centre is utterly irrational. You cannot simply take a collection of artworks and transfer it into another ecosystem, because such an ecosystem does not exist,” he added.

Surprise Move Cancels New Building, 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 accommodate the institution, and announced plans to relocate its collection of approximately 8,000 artworks to Ghent’s Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (Smak). This unexpected decision will effectively strip the Antwerp museum of its museum status.

The M HKA’s collection also includes works by globally renowned creators such as Kerry James Marshall, Anish Kapoor and Marina Abramović.

“I cannot accept that they could be taken away from M HKA or otherwise put at risk as part of any structural reshuffling,” said British artist Kapoor in a message to the ministry.

Budget Pressures Motivate Cost-Cutting in Cultural Field

Belgium faces a budget deficit of 5.4 percent of its economic output, one of the largest in the eurozone. The cultural domain in particular is confronting dramatic cuts, with budget-tightening policies also implying an uncertain future for the new Brussels Kanal museum.

Under the proposals of Flanders’ socialist culture minister, the museum sector would be consolidated so that cultural holdings in the Flanders region are concentrated at three flagship institutions for historical, modern and contemporary art.

Flanders has a multitude of modern art institutions: in addition to M HKA in Antwerp and Smak in Ghent, there is Musea Brugge in Bruges and Museum M in Leuven.

Auditors Questions Cost-Saving Rationale

Whether the proposed shake-up would actually lower costs has been challenged by Belgium’s financial inspectorate. In a report sent to Gennez in October, it issued a negative assessment on the proposals, indicating their impact on the budget would be “partial and incomplete”.

Although transplanting the museum’s permanent collection could cut running expenses from approximately €8m to €5m, it is understood that going forward the Antwerp institution would have to allocate funds to loan artworks or purchase touring shows to attract visitors.

Ghent’s Smak, situated roughly an hour’s train ride from the M HKA, is also thought to presently lack enough space to adequately store M HKA’s collection, and would need investment to expand its storage capacity.