Leading artists have voiced strong opposition against what they call an “capricious restructuring” of Belgium’s museum landscape, as regional authorities aim to cut public spending by dismantling the nation’s oldest modern art institution and transplanting its entire collection to a different urban center.
Directors Decry ‘Flagrant Illegalities’ in Museum Overhaul
At a Tuesday briefing in Antwerp, the directors of the city’s Museum of Contemporary Art (M HKA), founded in 1985, denounced what they termed the “blatant violations” of the museum sector shake-up, a plan due to be debated in Belgium’s parliament on Friday.
“Antwerp represents Flanders’ biggest city, with a heritage as a hub of the avant-garde in Belgium,” stated Luc Tuymans, an Antwerp resident painter broadly regarded as Belgium’s most influential living artist.
“To degrade a cultural institution to an exhibition space is simply insane. You cannot just take a collection of pieces and transfer it into a different environment, because such an ecosystem does not exist,” Tuymans continued.
Surprise Move Cancels €80m Project, Relocates Collection
In October, the culture minister of the Flanders region scrapped the planned construction of a new, purpose-built €80m high-rise building to house the institution, and revealed intentions to move its collection of some 8,000 artworks to Ghent’s Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (Smak). This unexpected decision will in effect deprive the Antwerp museum of its museum status.
The M HKA’s holdings features works by international artists such as Kerry James Marshall, Anish Kapoor and Marina Abramović.
“I do not accept that they could be taken away from M HKA or potentially endangered as part of any structural reshuffling,” stated British artist Kapoor in a communication to the ministry.
Financial Constraints Drive Cost-Cutting in Arts Sector
The country is confronting a fiscal shortfall of 5.4% of GDP, among the highest in the European monetary union. The cultural domain specifically is facing dramatic cuts, with austerity measures also suggesting an uncertain future for Brussels’ new Kanal museum.
According to the plans of Flanders’ socialist culture minister, the museum sector would be streamlined so that art collections in the Flanders region are housed within three flagship institutions 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 Musea Brugge in Bruges and Museum M in Leuven.
Auditors Raises Doubts 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, suggesting their effect on the budget would be “fragmentary”.
While transplanting the institution’s core holdings could cut running expenses from around €8m to €5m, it is understood that in future the Antwerp museum would have to spend money to loan artworks or buy in exhibitions to attract visitors.
The Smak museum in Ghent, located about an hour’s train ride from the Antwerp museum, is also believed to presently lack enough space to adequately store M HKA’s collection, and would require funding to expand its storage facilities.
