Open Museum
What is it?
Open Museums is an independent organisation that brings together and represents some 120 museums and art centres in Brussels.
The aim is to make museums more accessible and open. It is essential to broaden this structurally. The threshold for entering a museum is not just physical and visible. Creating inclusive museums means actively involving under-represented voices in all decision-making processes.
Open Museum wants to play a pioneering role in making museums more aware of the issues of inclusion and participation.
Why is it important? / How can it help the professionals of the cultural sector?
Museums preserve our heritage and make it available to present and future generations. This is self-evident. What is less obvious are the narratives on their offer and why some voices are heard better than others. We need to recalibrate.
There is a profound desire to move towards a cultural democracy in which museums dare to critically apprehend their own perspectives and relate them to our everyday society. Museums are no longer elitist temples of knowledge propagating a single vision, but polyphonic spaces where every audience feels welcome, safe and represented.
Open Museum aims to achieve this through reflection, dialogue and action.
Organisation/Individual name
Type of actor
Contact information
julie@brusselsmuseums.be
Website / online presence
Geographic focus
Brussels
Areas of expertise
Making museums more accessible and open for everyone
Projects and initiatives worth mentioning
- Belvue museum: inclusive digital content for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Open Museum initiative
- Handbook for welcoming and supporting people with disabilities @Brussels Museums. Open Museum initaitive
Collaborations and partnerships
Bozar, Brussels Design Museum, Chocostory, CIVA, Musée d’Ixelles, La Fonderie, Geopolis, Musée Horta, ING Art Centre, Musée juif de la Belgique, KANAL – Centre Pompidou, KBR, Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, and others
Accessible technologies used
n/c
Publications/resources worth mentioning
Recognition/ awards
n/c
Funding sources
- FEWB
- Town of Brussels
- Equal Brussels
- Actiris
Membership in associations/networks
Brussels Museums, a network that connects over 125 museums across the Brussels-Capital Region.
Training and capacity building
- In-depth interviews with participating museums
- Trainings on unconscious bias and inclusion in the participating museums with their entire teams
- Assembling and sharing best (and worst) practices from our museum field, city, country and far beyond
- Offering a platform to showcase participatory projects of our museums
- Moments of reflection between museums
- Caring Curators: Open Museum x Through Art We Care
Languages of operation
French, Dutch, English
Testimonials / impact stories / user feedback
–