An overview of our activities in 2025: read Flanders Arts Institute’s annual report

For Flanders Arts Institute, 2025 was dominated by the editing, production and presentation of the Landscape Sketch of the Arts. The material we had gathered the previous year was reviewed, summarised and finalised. We presented the final result on 16 September 2025 to a packed house at the Arenbergschouwburg.

The Landscape Sketch of the Arts is intended to inform Minister Gennez’s Strategic Vision document, due on 1 April 2026. At the same time, it inspires policymakers and professionals in countless other ways, which we highlight further in the annual report. Naturally, the many other tasks undertaken by Flanders Arts Institute also continued. We supported the sector through meetings and exchanges, international visitors programmes, information and advice, publications on sub-sectors and shared issues, podcasts, videos, an updated database, and innovation and development initiatives. Over the past year, the focus of these initiatives has been on ‘multi-voicedness and inclusion in the arts’.

Flanders Arts Institute does not operate in isolation. We see how the world is changing at breakneck speed: politically, climatically and socially. Inevitably, these changes have an impact on and within our arts sector. Our open discussion forum Art during crisis was launched in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, seeking answers to the question of what the arts sector can contribute in times of humanitarian distress and political crisis. In recent years, that question has only become more pressing. Art during crisis has since become a monthly fixture, connecting people from all corners of the world around such issues. By 2025, these conversations – sadly – have only become more relevant and important.

2026 doesn’t look set to be any quieter. Fortunately, we’ve got our role as a support centre well under our belts, and we know exactly how we want to fulfil it: driven by knowledge and passionate about art, or to put it another way: as a knowledge centre working in close proximity to its beloved sector.

Download our annual report here (in Dutch)