I have a dream
I have a dream. Only I live in Brussels, so I’m not hopeful it will ever happen. Or not in my lifetime anyway.
Years ago, when I was a young journalist writing about Brussels, I interviewed the director of the Museum of Art and History in the Cinquantenaire Park. In those days, the museum was a difficult place to visit. The entrance was hidden around the side. And you might arrive to find the rooms you wanted to visit were closed on that day.
I still remember the details. The Roman and Greek rooms were open on even-numbered days. The other rooms were open on odd-numbered days. So if, let’s say, you turned up on December 5 hoping to see the beautiful scale model of Rome, you’d be told to come back tomorrow.
The director had ambitious plans, he told me. He wanted to move the entrance to the esplanade at the front of the building, improve the opening hours and create a more welcoming experience.
Nothing happened.
A decade or so later, I sat through a presentation where someone from Brussels Region described a bold plan to turn the Cinquantenaire Park into “the Central Park of Brussels”.
Nothing happened again.
And in April 2023, the federal government announced a new plan for the park, this time inspired by Washington’s museum-lined Mall. This bold new plan involved covering over a motorway that cut through the Cinquantenaire and creating a stylish new entrance to the three museums located in the park.
It would all be finished in time for the country’s Bicentenial Celebrations in 2030. The prime minister Alexander De Croo called it a Moonshot.
It sounded brilliant. It would make 2030 a year to remember, like the Paris Bicentenary in 1989 when people flocked to see a parade of ponies painted as zebras, moonwalking American students and a Russian bear on skates.
But now it isn’t going to happen.
I wasn’t really surprised. The plan was called Horizon 50-200. So not so much a Moonshot. More a policy paper drafted by a junior intern.
The focus will now be on restoring the museum building, which is dilapidated, according to Isabel Casteleyn, the director of Horizon 50-200, in an interview with Bruzz magazine.
So nothing much will change. The traffic will continue to cut through the park. The museum entrance will stay hidden around the side. Maybe in 50 years something will happen, Casteleyn said hopefully, but it certainly won’t happen in 2030, she assured us.
So we are looking at 2080.
I had a dream. But it’s not going to happen in my lifetime unless some big leap happens in cryogenic science.
I could have left it there. Hit send. You would have had yet another familiar Belgian story of broken promises and failed ambition. But I decided to add one last thought.
I still remember the excitement I felt back in 1992 when the director set out his plans to turn the Cinquantenaire Museum into a truly world-class collection. I think about this every time I walk past the museum.
This underwhelming grey stone building owns a spectacular collection of art in an exceptional location – just ten minutes from the Schuman Square. It is a global collection that could be as magnificent as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
There are masterpieces of Islamic art, iconic statues from Easter Island, elaborate Flemish altarpieces, and precious objects from Tutankhamun’s tomb. And of course that fabulous scale model of Ancient Rome that could only be viewed on a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
We have five years before 2030. So maybe we can change things. How about we get down to a serious discussion about the museum in the park we’d like to see in 2030. And the Belgium we’d like to be celebrating in five years’ time.
