Minister presents strategic vision for cultural heritage

Summary

Culture minister Sven Gatz has presented a four-year vision for cultural heritage in the region, which includes linking related tangible and intangible heritage

‘Quality and sustainability’

Flemish minister for culture Sven Gatz has presented a new white paper on cultural heritage. The paper sets out policy priorities for the period from 2019 to 2023.

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

Herita

Herita is the Flemish umbrella agency for heritage conservation. It’s a clearing-house for patrimony and liaises between heritage organisations and the general public.
Birth - The heritage agency was born from three separate organisations – Heritage Flanders, Forum of Heritage Associations and Open Monument Day.
Open house - The annual Heritage Days and Open Monument Days are Herita’s flagship activities for the general public.
British - Herita was explicitly modelled on the British heritage organisation the National Trust when it was established in 2012.
13

Herita-owned monuments

300

local heritage associations in Flanders

400 000

visitors to Open Monument Day in 2014