The museum boasts around 8,000 artworks by artists working from around 1960 onwards, including works by Dan Flavin, Barbara Kruger, Bruce Nauman, Gordon Matta-Clark, Alfredo Jaar, Kerry James Marshall, Marina Abramovi\u0107 and Ulay, Cady Noland, and Marlene Dumas. The move would strip the M HKA of its official museum status, effectively downgrading M HKA to an arts center.<\/p>\n
Several significant cultural leaders have signed open letters<\/a> in support of preserving M HKA as a museum, including Hans Ulrich Obrist, artistic director of Serpentine Galleries in London, Maria Balshaw, outgoing director of the U.K.\u2019s Tate, Laurent Le Bon, director of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and Taco Dibbets, director of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.<\/p>\n Protest banners pictured at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen in Antwerp, on Thursday October 9, 2025. Photo: ZENO DRUYTS \/ Belga \/ AFP via Getty Images.<\/p>\n The fall-out from Gennez\u2019s shocking decision, first announced in October, is now coming to a head. Earlier this week, the directors of the M HKA held a press conference, during which they decried Gennez\u2019s draft proposal and presented new legal advice that claims her proposal is \u201cunlawful,\u201d and needs to be \u201copen to consultation.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking to Flemish parliament on Thursday, Gennez stressed that, although the new M HKA has been canceled, other aspects of the proposal remain open to change. This includes the possibility that the institution could retain its status as a museum. Once the draft proposal is approved, a two-year \u201ctransition\u201d period will commence, during which the future of Flanders\u2019s museum landscape will be shaped by discussions within the sector.<\/p>\n A hearing in Flemish parliament will likely take place on January 16 or a subsequent Friday. In Belgium, regional cultural matters are decided by regional, not federal, government.<\/p>\n A Shock Announcement<\/p>\n The possibility of building a new M HKA dates back to 2018, when the plan was first announced along with a budget of \u20ac100 million ($116.5 million). Five architectural teams proposed designs for the museum, but the jury never reached a unanimous verdict and the project came to a halt in 2020.<\/p>\n Finally, in 2023, there was renewed hope for the M HKA\u2019s future when the Flemish government announced that it would allocate \u20ac130 million ($151.5 million) towards restarting the project. The chosen design, a high-rise to replace Antwerp\u2019s old Court of Appeals, would be double the size of the current M HKA. It was debuted last February with a estimated \u20ac80 million ($93.2 million) price tag.<\/p>\n Rendering of the new M HKA by Belgian firm Bovenbouw Architectuur and Swiss architectural firm Christ & Gantenbein, released in February 2025.<\/p>\n Just eight months later, in October, Gennez made the shock announcement that plans for the new M HKA building were to be scrapped. The backlash was swift. Herman De Bode resigned as chairman of the museum\u2019s board just days after the announcement, soon followed by M HKA\u2019s director of 23 years, Bart De Baere, in early November.<\/p>\n Speaking to the public Flemish broadcaster VRT<\/a>, De Baere said that Gennez\u2019s announcement had been \u201cunexpected.\u201d He added that he was stepping back in order to \u201ccreate some space\u201d for a debate about the proposal.<\/p>\n The museum\u2019s remaining directors, meanwhile, have teamed up with Museum at Risk, a campaign collective of arts workers and artists who support the museum, including Tuymans, Kapoor, and artist-curator Emilia Kabakov, to seek legal advice. During the press conference on January 6, the M HKA\u2019s acting director Dieter Vankeirsbilck claimed that Gennez\u2019s proposal \u201cshould actually be open to consultation\u201d rather than \u201cbeing presented as definitive policy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe legal position, autonomy, and museum mission of the M HKA, as the first museum for contemporary art in Flanders, are being thoughtlessly undermined,\u201d said the museum\u2019s lawyer Leo Neels.<\/p>\n Gennez\u2019s spokesperson Rebecca Castermans said that only the \u201cprinciple guidelines\u201d of the reform had been decided. \u201cWithin that framework, there are still a lot of possibilities on the table,\u201d she said in a phone call. One key factor in government\u2019s decision will be whether or not M HKA can make certain improvements to its operations, the need for which was identified last year in a report by its advisory committee.<\/p>\n Despite this apparent flexibility, a spokesperson for Museums at Risk said they don\u2019t see \u201cany real change\u201d in Gennez\u2019s attitude. \u201cShe means to stick to her plans and if M HKA should stay a museum under these conditions, it is very unclear how it would be financed,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cIt also does not solve the fact that her plan was initiated without any involvement of the arts field or any real research.\u201d<\/p>\n Both Vankeirsbilck and the Museum at Risk collective are calling for Gennez\u2019s proposal to be postponed. \u201cThis will give us time to consult with everyone, the entire sector,\u201d the acting director said. \u201cThis way, we can arrive at a sound plan.\u201d<\/p>\n Budget Problems\u00a0<\/p>\n At the time of Gennez\u2019s announcement, Belgium\u2019s government was in the middle of months-long, tense negotiations over the country\u2019s 2026 budget, which was finally announced in November.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this difficult budgetary context, we must ensure that every cent the government invests in well-received,\u201d the minister said. She further justified the dramatic change of plan by claiming that the museum\u2019s policy and operations are \u201ccurrently insufficiently sound.\u201d She cited too \u201cgrowing uncertainty surrounding construction costs.\u201d<\/p>\n Some have raised doubts that Gennez\u2019s new proposal would be effective in cutting costs. On October 9, the Flemish financial inspectorate issued an advisory opinion noting that, while the loss of a permanent collection would reduce the M HKA\u2019s operation costs from around \u20ac8 million to \u20ac5 million, the arts center would take on the expense of borrowing works for future exhibitions.<\/p>\n Furthermore, the Smak in Ghent would likely need to expand its storage capacity in order to accommodate the M HKA\u2019s 8,000 work-strong collection. The inspectorate did not believe that the cost of halting plans for the new M HKA had been adequately laid out by Gennez.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Flemish government is being asked to make a decision without properly assessing its consequences,\u201d it concluded, according to De Morgen<\/a>.<\/p>\n Flemish Minister for Welfare and Culture Caroline Gennez. Photo: DIRK WAEM \/ Belga\/ AFP via Getty Images.<\/p>\n Castermans denied that proposal had ever been intended as a cost-cutting measure. Any freed-up budget will instead be reallocated to other cultural institutions in Antwerp, most notably the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) and the Antwerp Opera. Additionally, some money would be set aside to improve the M HKA\u2019s current building in Zuidpark, south of the city.<\/p>\n The Flemish government\u2019s decision to reform its museum landscape is intended to encourage more collaboration and knowledge exchange, said Castermans. While some institutions would safeguard collections, others, like M HKA, would have a different non-museum function more akin to the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.<\/p>\n \u201cOur aim is to make sure that museums can work together, that more artists can show their work, and that more people are able to enjoy art,\u201d said Castermans. \u201cThat is the why of this plan and how this plan will take shape.\u201d<\/p>\n The M HKA is one of four contemporary art museums in Flanders, which is also home to Ghent\u2019s Smak, Musea Brugge in Bruges, and Museum M in Leuven.<\/p>\n What\u2019s at Stake?<\/p>\n Impassioned pleas by M HKA\u2019s defenders have indicated the high stakes of Gennez\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n Artist Tuymans, who was born near Antwerp and is central to the city\u2019s arts scene, has been a particularly vocal defender of the M HKA. \u201cIf we do not act now, the independence of all cultural institutions will be at risk,\u201d he said in a statement for Museum at Risk.<\/p>\n He is not the only artist who feels strongly about saving the M HKA. British artist Kapoor informed the Flemish culture ministry that he \u201ccannot accept\u201d that his work might be removed from the M HKA \u201cor otherwise put at risk as part of any institutional reorganization,\u201d according to the Guardian<\/a>. He has threatened to withdrawn his work from M HKA\u2019s collection.<\/p>\n Employees of M HKA organizing a protest action at the museum in October. Photo: TIJS VANDERSTAPPEN\/ Belga\/ AFP via Getty Images.<\/p>\n Before his resignation as director, De Baere wrote an open letter defending the museum\u2019s important role in Antwerp\u2019s cultural scene, including nurturing the careers of local stars of the international scene like Laure Provost, the late Guillaume Bijl, and Otobong Nkanga.<\/p>\n He argued that while the transition to an \u201carts center\u201d may sound \u201charmless,\u201d the implications are \u201cprofound.\u201d \u201cFlanders has chosen not to have a true museum of contemporary art, a project that would finally have begun to make up for decades of underinvestment in the visual arts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2239512435-1024x683.jpg\")
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