Letter to the editor: Vandenbroucke does what Gennez does not dare to do
7 November 2025 - 1:25 pm – Open letterOn 27 October, Save the Museum | Museum at Risk, a collective of more than 40 artists and art workers, contacted Flemish Minister of Culture Caroline Gennez (Vooruit) to request urgent consultations on the crisis that has been raging in the art world since she proposed redrawing the museum landscape. However, the minister could take a leaf out of the book of her party colleagues and predecessors.
On 27 October, Save the Museum | Museum at Risk, a collective of more than 40 artists and art workers, contacted Flemish Minister of Culture Caroline Gennez (Vooruit) to request urgent consultation on the crisis that has been raging in the art world since her proposed redesign of the museum landscape.
However, the minister could take a leaf out of the book of her party colleagues and predecessors.
After the Health Committee of the Chamber of 4 November 2025, where the audit of the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAGG) requested by Minister of Health Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit), the minister appointed a crisis manager with immediate effect on the same day to resolve the problems surrounding a donor scandal. The FAGG was not abolished.
In the same vein, the Antwerp Museum of Contemporary Art has been struggling with downright poor scores in the recommendations of the Visual Arts Advisory Committee of the Flemish Community for as long as anyone can remember. Instead of following the example of her party colleague Vandenbroucke, Caroline Gennez brutally abolishes the Museum of Contemporary Art.
There is a tradition of consultation with public authorities in the cultural sector. In that spirit, Save the Museum | Museum at Risk also wants to reach out to Caroline Gennez to find a solution, but has not yet received a response. However, this tradition of consultation has yielded positive results for 25 years: Minister Luc Martens recognised visual artists as a point of contact in the form of the NICC, followed by Governor Camille Paulus and Antwerp Alderman for Culture Eric Antonis (wages and buildings). They were followed in turn by Minister Bert Anciaux (recognition as an arts centre) and Alderman for Culture Philip Heylen (studio policy). And not least by the then Minister of Social Affairs Frank Vandenbroucke in the artists' status dossier.
The decision to strip the Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp of its museum functions has provoked numerous frowns and opinion polls. International artists, curators, organisations and museums have responded to this top-down decision with various actions and letters. At www.savethemuseum.be, you can find several open letters from, among others:
- Directors of international museums: Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Museum Ludwig (Cologne), Fondation Cartier (Paris), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam), Kunstmuseum (The Hague), LUMA (Arles), Tinguely Museum (Basel), Museum Kunstpalast (Düsseldorf), Museo Reina Sofia (Madrid), Bonnefanten Museum (Maastricht), Stedelijk Museum (Schiedam), Centraal Museum (Utrecht), Kunstmuseum (Zurich), Kunstnernes Hus (Oslo), Tate Modern (London), Frac Grand Large (Dunkirk), Mudam (Luxembourg), Museum of Old and New Art (Geneva).
- Curators Hans Ulrich Obrist (Serpentine London) and Barbara Vanderlinden.
- International artists: Annette Messager, Emilia Kabakov, Anish Kapoor.
- CIMAM Museum Watch.
- AICA: International Association of Art Critics.
We believe it is high time that Minister Gennez's cabinet breaks its silence and accepts the hand extended by Save the Museum | Museum at Risk in order to arrive at a well-founded and widely supported solution. In the meantime, we will continue to plan actions and issue appeals to address the minister's unfortunate decision.
For Save the Museum | Museum at Risk,
Danny Devos, artist
Tamara Beheydt, writer and curator
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