Minister presents strategic vision for cultural heritage

The paper covers the government’s future support for museums, heritage libraries and archives and heritage organisations. “The main aim of my cultural heritage policy is quality and sustainability,” Gatz said. “That way cultural heritage remains meaningful today and is passed on to future generations.”

The policy has four main priorities: reinforcing art and heritage collections in Flanders; link tangible heritage such as art works and manuscripts with intangible heritage such as traditions and practices; more co-operation between different branches of the cultural-heritage sector; and broader and more diverse participation.

Two Antwerp institutions, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts and the M HKA museum for contemporary art, have been given the status of cultural heritage institutions of international repute. They will serve as role models for the whole sector in their co-operations with each other and with other bodies, from local to international levels.

The paper also lays out priority areas for this legislature, including agrarian and industrial heritage, crafts, local history and genealogy.

Photo: The Torreelen, a walled farmhouse in Veurne, West Flanders, is protected cultural heritage
©Immovable Heritage Agency