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Landscape Sketch of the Arts 2025: the cards reshuffled: Art and culture (supra)local
When it comes to a high-quality and accessible artistic offering, the Flemish are lucky. Flanders has an extensive network of venues for experiencing art, from large cities to municipalities. We are unique with our locally embedded cultural centres (the former cultural and community centres) and our part-time arts education (DKO). Together with the libraries, they form the infrastructural backbone for local artistic life in Flanders. In addition, there are urban and municipal events ranging from city festivals to triennials, private initiatives such as art galleries, dance schools, and live music, the many players in the Arts, Youth, Amateur Arts, and the Cultural Heritage Decree, and creative hubs and artistic havens, often initiated by artists and entrepreneurs, and sometimes with local support.
Over the past decades, cultural authority and budgets have shifted between policy levels. At its core is the principle of subsidiarity: what can be done at a ‘lower’ level is best done at that level, because it is assumed to be more effective, and because local needs and dynamics are better understood at that level. Flanders has given the local policy level greater autonomy, including budgetary autonomy: the resources in the Municipal Fund are not earmarked for culture.
The Decree on Local Cultural Policy no longer explicitly specifies any cultural mandates. The provinces also no longer have any cultural powers. Their budgets are divided between (mainly) Flanders and the local governments. Today, Flanders still has a supra-local cultural policy with inter-municipal partnerships (IGSs) for supra-local cultural activities and subsidies for supra-local projects.
These shifts bring challenges and opportunities. It is important here to provide the framework and tools, based on the strengths of each policy level, in a meaningful and sustainable relationship with developments in the arts field itself.
Download the full Landscape Sketch of the Arts 2025 (in Dutch)
Conclusion
A local arts and culture policy must take into account diverse needs and wishes. Local associations and (groups of) artists are looking for work, performance, storage, rehearsal and exhibition space. Flemish subsidised work aims to be as accessible as possible to the public throughout Flanders. Public-oriented organisations aim to develop an inviting and accessible operation. Various players – including cultural centres, part-time arts education (DKO), amateur arts, creative hubs, Flemish subsidised houses – relate to each other, and together ensure the local, cultural dynamics.
This theme addresses the impact of shifting cultural responsibilities, for which resources are currently not earmarked through the Municipal Fund. From now on, local policymakers will be the ones who allocate cultural budgets locally. The link between the Flemish and local levels has thus been virtually severed.
Knowledge building and exchange are important for the autonomous development of local arts and culture policy, as well as for the mutual coherence between cities and municipalities in this area. It concerns both artistic and content-related aspects and sensitivity to administrative hygiene, since administrators sometimes try to influence the substantive choices of players under their authority.
The new division of powers poses a challenge for the distribution of art produced with Flemish resources. Traditionally, performing arts and music – as well as film and visual arts – are largely distributed through local cultural centres. Today, these houses are faced with a broader range of needs and ambitions. There is a need for vision development and supra-local coordination. How can these cultural institutions develop their profile in complete autonomy and complementarity? What role will they play from now on in the national distribution of art made with funds from the Arts Decree?
In addition, several locally managed cultural buildings are in need of renovation. Ideally, this also goes hand in hand with a thorough and future-oriented vision (exercise), with an eye for landscape care and local or regional complementarity. This requires a supra-local overview.
Core insights
- There is a need for a renewed vision on the authority regarding arts and culture at various policy levels.
- A vision is needed regarding the tasks and roles of cultural institutions today and in the future, and regarding the maintenance and renewal of their infrastructure.
- Administrative hygiene is important, also at a local level. Cultural centre programmers need trust, freedom and resources to develop locally relevant offerings.
- Knowledge sharing and coordination between cities and municipalities would be beneficial for (regional) landscape management and the development of expertise in cultural policy at the local level.
