PRESS RELEASE
JOKE SCHAUVLIEGE
FLEMISH MINISTER FOR ENVIRONMENT, NATURE AND CULTURE
MONDAY 24 March 2014
Today, the Flemish Minister for Culture, Mrs Joke Schauvliege, presented the Flemish Culture Award for Cultural Management 2012-2013 to the Ancienne Belgique, in collaboration with the Bilsen Fund for Cultural Management. The presentation took place during the annual Colloquium for Cultural Management of the Bilsen Fund in the University of Antwerp. The jury praised the entrepreneurship and the sense of enterprise of the non-profit organization from the past to the future as well as the pioneering work that is done by the AB in a complex Brussels context.
The Ancienne Belgique (AB) is literally bursting at its seams. The Main Hall and Club (corresponding to a capacity of 2,250 persons) are fully booked day after day. The Brussels music temple owes this success in part to a marked attention to product innovation within the core activities of the house, paying the necessary attention to cultural diversity. AB is a strong, international brand, transcending generations, which always succeeds in modernizing itself and remaining relevant.
In the meantime, the AB has put on its pioneering shoes once again. The team is currently transforming the American Theatre at the Brussels Heysel into a multidisciplinary cultural location for Brussels. The AB has great ambitions for the former American pavilion of Expo 58, which accommodated the Belgian national broadcasting corporation BRT in former days. The large studio is found suitable to bill high-quality top artists for a sitting audience. However, the American Theatre does not simply have to become a second AB venue. There is also space for rehearsal rooms. The AB hopes to build up a location where all Brussels players in the performing arts can find a place and where players from the cultural sector come together to accommodate cultural innovation and young artistic talent. The AB does not only focus on its own cultural temple, but proactively enters into a dialogue with many partners, within and outside of Brussels. In this manner, the house also counts at the global level and contributes in a unique way to the international image of Flanders, well beyond the borders of its own region. This new step is characteristic of the innovative approach by the Ancienne Belgique, which it has been maintaining for many years now.
The Flemish Minister for Culture, Mrs Joke Schauvliege: "Great and small have been there. That they keep coming back is the merit of a dynamic organisation that is not afraid to modernize without putting away the past in a filing cabinet. This is what makes the AB a resounding name, both home and abroad."
Colloquium of the Bilsen Fund for Cultural Management
The annual Colloquium of the Bilsen Fund for Cultural Management takes place on Monday 24 March at Stadscampus Antwerpen, the city campus of the University of Antwerp. This year's theme is: Culture = experience. Can the experience economy contribute to sustainable participation? Cultural houses and organisations increasingly have to focus on experiences. But does this also lead to sustainable participation? After an academic reflection with, among others, Prof. Dr. Jean-Pierre Bayens (Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management Bruxelles) and Dr. Ed Peelen (ICSB Marketing and Strategy), a certain number of players will hold a debate, among others Bruno Verbergt (UA), Dirk Cornelis (directeur CC De Spil) and Dr. Ann Petermans (University of Hasselt).
For more information, please visit: www.fondsvoorcultuurmanagement.be
Flemish Culture Awards 2012-2013
A jury of experts pays tribute to a person or an organisation that made a notable contribution to cultural life in Flanders in the course of the past season. The Flemish Culture Awards jury announce the laureate at an important event organised by the sector where both the sector and the winner receive attention and recognition.
A Culture Award carries the amount of 12,500 euros. For the General Cultural Merit Award of the Flemish Community, an amount of 20,000 euros is appropriated by the Government of Flanders. Each laureate receives the bronze statuette 'La ultima isla' by Philip Aguirre.
More information is available at: www.cultuurprijzen.be and www.vlaanderen.be/cultuurprijzen
