Minister and top chef in New York to promote arts and cuisine

Goossens is the leading figure in Weyts’ Flemish Food Faculty, launched in December to promote local cuisine abroad. “We need to show more pride in what we have to offer here in culinary terms and promote that at home and abroad,” Weyts said then. “That’s the reason for this joining of forces of everyone in the sector – from the top chefs to the hotel schools – to see what kind of actions we can organise.”

Goossens will be hosting a food event in the city. According to the chef of Hof van Cleve, one of Flanders’ three restaurants with three Michelin stars, more and more tourists are coming to the region specifically for gastronomic reasons. It means a restaurant “is worth making a special trip,” he said. “We see more and more people who come to Hof van Cleve and then go on to visit other cities, but who really make it their goal to come here to eat.”

The exhibition Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture is hosted by The Frick Collection and pays tribute to the Flemish painter and diplomat who was one of the most sought-after portraitists of the 17th century. “This is the most comprehensive exhibition ever organized on van Dyck’s activity and process as a portraitist and the first major exhibition on the artist to be held in the United States in more than 20 years,” according to the museum.

“The exhibition explores the astounding versatility and inventiveness of a portrait specialist, the stylistic development of a draughtsman and painter, and the efficiency and genius of an artist in action,” said the museum in a statement.

The exhibition includes 100 works from both private and public collections, including Palazzo Pitti in Florence, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and the National Gallery in London. Three works on display come from Antwerp’s Fine Arts Museum.

Van Dyck is co-curated by Flemish curator Stijn Alsteens, who is based at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and is supported by the government of Flanders and Flanders House in New York.

Photo: Mary, Lady van Dyck, née Ruthven by Anthony van Dyck, circa 1640, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

UPDATE 2 March 16.15: Minister Weyts was forced to cancel his visit to New York for the opening of the exhibition