About the BKO

The Brussels Kunstenoverleg (BKO) is a cultural network that was established in 2001. Today it brings together more than 70 Dutch speaking cultural institutions in the Brussels region of Belgium: theatres, companies, art labs, festivals, etcetera; small organizations as well as big institutes. As a Brussels based network, the BKO has a close collaboration with the French speaking cultural network Réseau des Arts à Bruxelles (RAB). 


Aims

The Brussels Kunstenoverleg aims to :

• stimulate collaboration within the cultural field and with the public authorities to realise a cultural policy that responds to the specificity of Brussels; We aim at the recognition by the public authorities of the role of Brussels as a cultural city in an international perspective;
• create a common vision within the cultural field towards the public authorities;
• facilitate exchange of experience between Brussels based cultural organisations;
• stimulate a dialogue and synergies between Brussels based cultural organisations;
• set up collaborations to realise research projects about the arts in Brussels;
• create instruments to communicate with, gather and exchange information for Brussels based cultural organisations;
• launch collective projects that enhance the visibility of the cultural field in Brussels (for example the festival BRXLBRAVO).

Brussels cultural actors unite

The signing of a collaborative agreement between the Flemish Community and the French Community (both competent in the cultural field in Belgium) has been a topic of discussion for more than 10 years in Brussels. Tired of waiting for the politicians to finally take action, the Réseau des Arts à Bruxelles and the Brussels Kunstenoverleg took the initiative of drafting their own collaborative agreement, signed until now by over 100 cultural organisations.

The complex Belgian federal system makes life extremely complicated for cultural operators in Brussels, especially if they want to develop collaborative projects bridging the two linguistic communities. As their funding mainly comes from the French or Flemish Communities (depending on their official working language), no appropriate financial schemes exist to encourage collaborative projects in the capital city, whose cultural expression transcend the classical Belgian linguistic divide. However, a number of successful co-operation projects have already been developed over the last years (KunstenFestivaldesArts, BRXLBRAVO, the Zinneke Parade) and cultural operators are committed to continue in this direction, which truly reflects the evolution of the environment they work in.

The idea of signing a collaborative agreement of their own initiative originated in the work of the two cultural networks BKO and RAB. The co-operation between the two platforms first led to the creation of the arts festival BRXLBRAVO  in 2005 and then to the formulation of more general policy demand to facilitate co-operation in the signed agreement that was presented in february 2007.

In the meantime, the two networks continue to take action and develop an annual work plan and also a master plan for the future of culture in Brussels, that will be presented in 2009.

The third edition of the BRXLBRAVO arts festival will take place on 2, 3 and 4 october 2009.


For more info, write to leen@brusselskunstenoverleg.be or to sophie@reseaudesartsabruxelles.be.

Contact:
Brussels Kunstenoverleg vzw 
Sainctelettesquare 19 
1000 Brussels
Belgium

T / F +32 2 513 66 28 
info@brusselskunstenoverleg.be   

Co-ordinator: Leen De Spiegelaere - leen@brusselskunstenoverleg.be

Website Brussels Kunstenoverleg (in Dutch)

Website Réseau des Arts à Bruxelles (in French)