‘Simply Insane’: Artists Decry Dismantling of Antwerp City’s Most Historic Art Gallery.

Leading creators have raised their voices in protest against what they describe as an “arbitrary reshaping” of the nation’s cultural scene, as the Flanders government aim to cut public spending by dismantling the operations of the nation’s oldest modern art institution and relocating its entire collection to another city.

Leaders Condemn ‘Flagrant Illegalities’ in Museum Overhaul

At a recent press conference in Antwerp, the leadership of the city’s Museum of Contemporary Art (M HKA), founded in 1985, decried what they called the “flagrant illegalities” of the cultural institution reorganization, a move due to be debated in the national legislature this Friday.

“Antwerp represents Flanders’ biggest city, with a legacy as a home of the avant-garde in Belgium,” said renowned painter Luc Tuymans, an Antwerp-based artist widely seen as Belgium’s foremost living artist.

“To demote a museum to an arts centre is simply insane. You cannot simply move a collection of artworks and transplant it into another ecosystem, because such an ecosystem is not present,” he added.

Surprise Move Cancels €80m Project, Relocates Holdings

In last autumn, the culture minister of the Flanders region scrapped the proposed development of a new, purpose-built €80m tower to house the institution, and announced plans to relocate its collection of some 8,000 artworks to Ghent’s Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (Smak). This surprise move will in effect strip the Antwerp institution of its museum status.

The Antwerp museum’s collection features pieces by international artists such as Kerry James Marshall, Anish Kapoor and Marina Abramović.

“I do not accept that they 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 Drive Cost-Cutting in Arts Sector

Belgium faces a fiscal shortfall of 5.4 percent of its economic output, among the highest in the eurozone. The cultural domain in particular is facing significant reductions, with austerity measures also implying an uncertain future for the new Brussels Kanal museum.

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

Flanders has a plethora of contemporary art museums: besides M HKA in Antwerp and Smak in Ghent, there is the Bruges museums in Bruges and Museum M in Leuven.

Auditors Questions Savings Rationale

Whether the proposed shake-up would actually lower costs has been challenged by the national audit office. In a report sent to Gennez in October, it issued a negative assessment on the plans, suggesting their impact on the budget would be “fragmentary”.

While 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 spend money to loan artworks or buy in exhibitions to draw audiences.

The Smak museum in Ghent, located about an hour by train from the Antwerp museum, is also believed to currently not have enough space to adequately store M HKA’s collection, and would need investment to increase its storage capacity.