• Belgium has reversed plans to dismantle Antwerp’s M HKA, preserving its museum status and permanent collection.
• Flemish authorities agreed to a revised “M HKA 2.0” collaboration-focused future without new building plans.
• The controversial proposal had sparked opposition from artists and museum leaders, and threats of legal action before the reversal.

Belgium has backtracked on controversial plans to dismantle its oldest contemporary art museum. Following a wave of backlash among some of the art world’s most influential figures, Antwerp’s Museum of Contemporary Art (M HKA) will retain its museum status and its permanent collection will remain intact.

Culture minister Caroline Gennez first announced her intention to scrap a long-anticipated $93 million new building for M HKA last fall, amid a broader “structural reform” of Flanders’s museum landscape. M HKA would be turned into an arts center for temporary programming and its permanent collection would be transferred to the Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (Smak) in Ghent. The proposal met fierce opposition from the museum, prominent local artists Luc Tuymans and Otobong Nkanga, and some of Europe’s top museum leaders, including Hans Ulrich Obrist, Maria Balshaw, Laurent Le Bon, and Taco Dibbets.

The Flemish culture ministry has managed to reach an agreement with the campaigners seeking to protect M HKA. The museum will enter a new phase, dubbed “M HKA 2.0,” but his has yet to be mapped out. For now, Gennez has announced a new general assembly, which will bring together various stakeholders to discuss and propose long-term recommendations for the region’s cultural sector. A vision statement for the future of Flanders’s museums will be prepared by June.

As part of this new approach, M HKA will be expected to collaborate with other local museums as part of a two-year agreement intended to deepen ties within the sector, according to the Brussels Times. This new plan of action was approved by the Flemish government last week.

 

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“We all share the same vision and ambition: we want to show more art in more places to more visitors,” explained Gennez in a press statement. “We want more cooperation between the museums, and to connect our Flemish museums to the international top.”

One aspect of Gennez’s original proposal that has not changed is that the planned new building for M HKA will not go ahead.

The first signs of a possible pivot in strategy came last month when, speaking to Flemish parliament, Gennez said her proposal remained open to change, in dialogue with relevant cultural leaders. “There are still lots of possibilities on the table,” Gennez’s spokesperson Rebecca Castermans said in a phone call, at the time. “One key factor in government’s decision will be whether or not M HKA can make certain improvements to its operations.”

At the same time, M HKA’s senior leadership and the Museum at Risk campaign group held a press conference during which they raised the possibility of taking legal action against Gennez’s decision, which they argued was “unlawful.”

Gennez’s plan to institute a general assembly would appear to address accusations made by campaigners that her plan “was initiated without any involved of the arts field or any real research,” according to a spokesperson for Museums at Risk.

M HKA did not comment on Gennez’s change of plan but confirmed that “plans for a new building are not being pursued at this time.” It celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2027.