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Prominent creators have voiced strong opposition against what they describe as an “capricious restructuring” of Belgium’s museum landscape, as the Flanders government aim to cut public spending by dismantling the country’s most historic modern art institution and relocating its complete holdings to a different urban center.

Directors Decry ‘Flagrant Illegalities’ in Museum Overhaul

At a Tuesday briefing in Antwerp, the leadership of the city’s Museum of Contemporary Art (M HKA), established in 1985, decried what they termed the “blatant violations” of the cultural institution reorganization, a plan scheduled for discussed in Belgium’s parliament on Friday.

“Antwerp is the largest city in Flanders, with a heritage as a home of the avant-garde in Belgium,” said renowned painter Luc Tuymans, an Antwerp resident artist widely seen as Belgium’s most influential contemporary creator.

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

Unexpected Decision Scraps €80m Project, Relocates Collection

In last autumn, the culture minister of the Flemish government cancelled the proposed development of a new, purpose-built €80m tower to house the museum, and revealed intentions to relocate its holdings of approximately 8,000 artworks to Ghent’s Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (Smak). This unexpected decision will in effect deprive the Antwerp museum 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 otherwise put at risk as part of any structural reshuffling,” said British artist Kapoor in a message to the ministry.

Financial Constraints Drive Austerity in Cultural Field

Belgium faces a fiscal shortfall of 5.4% of GDP, one of the largest in the European monetary union. The cultural domain in particular is confronting significant reductions, with budget-tightening policies also implying an uncertain future for Brussels’ new Kanal museum.

According to the plans of Minister Caroline Gennez, the museum landscape would be consolidated so that cultural holdings in the Flanders region are concentrated at three beacon museums for historical, modern and contemporary art.

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

Financial Inspectorate Questions Cost-Saving Logic

If the proposed shake-up would actually reduce expenses has been challenged by the national audit office. In a memorandum sent to the minister in October, it issued a negative assessment on the proposals, indicating their effect on the budget would be “fragmentary”.

Although transplanting the institution’s core holdings could cut operating costs from approximately €8m to €5m, it is understood that in future the Antwerp museum would have to allocate funds to loan artworks or buy in exhibitions to draw audiences.

The Smak museum in Ghent, located about an hour by train from the M HKA, is also believed to currently not have sufficient room to properly house M HKA’s holdings, and would need investment to expand its storage facilities.