After a Turbulent Decade and Multiple Delays, Brussels’s Kanal-Centre Pompidou Will Open in November. Not Everyone Is Happy About It.
Kanal-Centre Pompidou in Brussels is scheduled to open on November 28 after a decade of delays and renovations costing more than €250 million ($290 million). Housed in a 430,000-square-foot former 1930s Citroën garage near Molenbeek, it will become Brussels’s only major modern and contemporary art museum, with 130,000 square feet of exhibition space and more than 215,000 square feet of ticket-free public amenities. Artistic director Kasia Redzisz described the building as a “passage” rather than a single destination, with two streets intersecting the campus, and noted it is larger than London’s Tate Modern. A renewable partnership with the Centre Pompidou in Paris runs through 2031 and includes about 21,500 square feet for semi-permanent displays refreshed every 18 months, while Kanal is building its own collection with a €250,000 ($290,350) annual acquisition budget and about 100 objects so far. The project faces political pushback as Brussels-Capital Region lawmakers plan to reduce annual funding to €10 million ($11.5 million) starting in 2029, down from an originally planned €35 million ($40 million), with interim cuts from €28 million to €24 million in 2027 and €22 million in 2028.
From This Briefing
This story was covered in Prize Glory, Museum Turmoil, and Royalty Revolts