The city of Brussels to close the Centrale for contemporary art for budgetary reasons

Brussels’ contemporary art space the Centrale will close its doors in February, the city has announced.

The sudden decision by Brussels’ Socialist-Liberal-Engagés coalition is condemned by the Green opposition. It has also sparked a wave of support from the cultural sector, which is experiencing an erosion of public funding for visual arts in particular. An online petition has been launched opposing the shutting down of the art space.

Located in a former power station in Place Sainte-Catherine, the Centrale was preparing to celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2026 with an ambitious programme. It recently underwent major renovation during a six-month temporary period of closure. The recipient of over €500,000 in annual subsidies, the space employs some 20 staff.  

Brussels mayor Philippe Close told BX1 the decision to close it was budgetary with the city focusing its financial resources on cultural centres, theatres and museums. “We had to make a choice to preserve the rest of the institutions,” he said.

The art centre’s team immediately expressed their shock and sadness. “It's a collective catastrophe, we don't understand it,” they told RTBF. Busy preparing new exhibitions for the upcoming year, they underlined the Centrale’s importance as a showcase for emerging artists, particularly those from Brussels art schools.

While the city’s coalition government has pledged to explore the possibility of redeploying staff to other departments, Ecolo-Groen parties denounced the move as “a major cultural setback” and called for the decision to be suspended while credible budgetary alternatives were explored.

They cited an 2024 activity report which showed that despite the closure for renovation, the Centrale welcomed 19,414 visitors. They were primarily from Brussels and included many young people, students, seniors and those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The centre supported 330 artists, 75.8% of whom came from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, with near gender parity. These figures demonstrated it was an active venue, underlined Ecolo-Groen.

Organised by the nonprofit Assemblée des Structures en Arts Plastiques (ASAP), the online petition says closing the Centrale for Contemporary Art would mean:

• Breaking the dialogue between the public and the Belgian and international contemporary art scene
• Wasting a significant investment made last year in refurbishment work
• Reducing Brussels' international influence
• Weakening the social bond between citizens and institutions
• Disregarding the role of the visual arts in our contemporary societies
• Wiping out an important platform for a whole generation of emerging artists

Alongside exhibitions showing Belgian and international artists and multidisciplinary projects, the space has consistently supported emerging artists and outreach programmes.

It is currently staging the widely-praised exhibition La friche et la galaxie (pictured above) by Belgian artist Michel Couturier (1957-2024), which presents work from the last 10 years of his career using photography, video and drawing in relation to sculpture, architecture and public space.

Photos: ©the Centrale; La friche de la galaxie by Michel Couturier ©Philippe De Gobert