One year after the decision to scrap plans for a new building, Antwerp’s contemporary art museum M HKA is setting out a new course for the museum. Visitor numbers have remained stable, its artistic programme has continued and on 1 October 2026 the museum submitted its plan for 2026–2028.
The new strategy is built around two principles: the collection as its foundation and its network as its strength.
Stable visitor numbers
The museum welcomed an average of 109,000 visitors a year between 2017 and 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. Across the four most recent full years, from 2022 to 2025, the average was 108,000.
Visitor numbers also remained strong immediately after the decision on the museum’s future. October 2025 attracted more than 15,000 visitors, making it the museum’s best October since 2018. The final quarter of the year drew just under 29,000 visitors, the strongest fourth-quarter result since 2019.
“The figures give us no reason to sit back, but they do tell us something important: our audience has stayed with us,” said Dieter Vankeirsbilck, acting director of M HKA. “That is a strong basis on which to build. At the same time, we need to be honest about where we can grow.”
A year of activity
More than 65,000 people visited M HKA between January and September 2026. The museum describes 2026 as a “normal” year following an exceptional 2025.
Its artistic programme has continued, with Nicola L. ‘When the Earth Turned the Other Way‘ running since late June. The first major retrospective of the artist in Belgium has received extensive coverage in the Belgian and international press, including Le Monde, Le Vif, Elle, Marie Claire, Feeling, and Knack Weekend. The exhibition runs until 18 October, with final visitor figures still to come.
The autumn programme will continue with an exhibition by internationally acclaimed artist Lee Bul. ‘Lee Bul — From 1998 to Now‘ opens on 13 November and brings together more than 150 works. It is the only European stop on the touring retrospective and will be the first solo exhibition to occupy two entire floors of M HKA.
M HKA turns 40
The museum will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2027, but is choosing not to mark the occasion with a traditional retrospective.
Instead, from April onwards, the anniversary year will bring artists, researchers, schools and care organisations together for a year-long programme exploring the role of the museum and contemporary art.
“Forty years of M HKA is not an endpoint for us. It is an opportunity to ask again what a contemporary art museum can mean,” said Vankeirsbilck. “Not only for artists and the art world, but also for schools, the city and people who do not automatically walk into a museum.”
M HKA is not closing
A year after the decision to abandon the new building, the museum says a persistent misunderstanding remains: that M HKA is closing. It is not. The museum remains open and will continue to operate as a contemporary art museum.
The organisation is nevertheless undergoing a transition. On 1 October, M HKA submitted its 2026–2028 plan to the Flemish Government. Its proposed strategy focuses on making the collection a stronger starting point for the museum’s activities while expanding cooperation with artists, researchers, schools, care organisations and other partners.
The plan is expected to be approved by the minister in mid-October.
The museum is also changing its organisational structure and moving towards shared leadership. Applications for positions in the new management structure are open until 1 November.
Moving forward rather than looking back
The decision to abandon the new building marked a break with a future in which new infrastructure was central to the museum’s plans. M HKA is now focusing first on how it can grow from the resources it already has: its collection, artists, expertise and network.
“We have received many questions over the past year about what M HKA would become. Today, we can give a clearer answer,” Vankeirsbilck said. “We remain a museum. We will continue to exhibit and collect. And we are building an organisation that makes stronger use of what we already have: a collection, artists, expertise and a broad network.”
Building remains a challenge
Scrapping the new building project has not removed M HKA’s infrastructure problems. The current building does not meet the technical, climatic and functional requirements of a modern museum and has been on the government’s list of cultural buildings requiring urgent attention for several years.
The museum also says the building does not sufficiently reflect its ambitions to be an open, transparent and accessible organisation that shares space with the city.
M HKA will shortly submit a new needs assessment to the government, setting out its infrastructure requirements. At the same time, it is examining feasible short- and medium-term measures to make the building more energy-efficient, functional, accessible and open.
One thing, the museum says, is certain: M HKA needs better infrastructure and will continue to press for it.
For now, the museum is working on its future on three fronts, artistically, organisationally and in terms of infrastructure. M HKA remains open, and the next phase is now beginning.
Art and museums in Antwerp
- EXHIBITION | ‘Antwerp Unfiltered’ brings 3,000 analogue views of the city to Het Steen, from 27 September 2026 to January 2027.
- ANTWERP | FOMU to open three new exhibitions by Graciela Iturbide, Léonard Pongo and Lola Pertsowsky.
- PHOTOS | Behind The Scenes tour of the Antwerp opera house.
- Medieval Antwerp comes to life with archaeological exhibition at Het Steen.
- ANTWERP | ‘Antony Gormley. Geestgrond’ opens at KMSKA as the most comprehensive solo exhibition of the artist in Europe.
- Opera Ballet Vlaanderen unveils ‘À la flamande’ 2026–2027 season.
- ANTWERP | What if colours could sing? Masterpieces by Ensor, Wouters and Schmalzigaugnsor, Wouters and Schmalzigaug’, from 11 April to 30 August 2026.
- RED STAR LINE MUSEUM | ‘Drifting Belgians’, the incredible journey of the ghost walkers, until 30 August 2026.
- ANTWERP | ‘Martial Arts’: MAS exhibition explores the rich world of combat sports and martial traditions.
- REVIEW | ‘The Antwerp Six’ exhibition at the Antwerp fashion museum MoMu.
- ANTWERP | Museum Plantin-Moretus’ ‘Plantin’s Plants’ exhibition until 2 August 2026.
- ANTWERP | M HKA opens new season with exhibition on censorship and artistic resistance.
- ANTWERP | Climb the Cathedral of Our Lady tower.
- ANTWERP | Rubens House appoints two design teams.
- Antwerp’s municipal museums surpass 2 million visitors in 2025.
- ANTWERP | KMSKA schedules ambitious exhibition programme for 2026, featuring international masters such as Antony Gormley, Philip Aguirre y Otegui and Ossip Zadkine.
- Museums of the City of Antwerp look ahead to 2026.
- REVIEW | ‘La ligne de vie’ René Magritte exhibition at Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA).
- 2028 to be Music Year in Antwerp.
- ANTWERP | Museum Mayer van den Bergh opens exhibition ‘Public Favourites’, from Mad Meg to Delft Blue, look at art through other people’s eyes.
- ANTWERP | Graphics Museum De Reede ft. Francisco Goya, Edvard Munch, Félicien Rops and Albrecht Dürer.
- ANTWERP | Rubens Experience and Rubens Garden at Rubenshuis.
- ANTWERP | Innovations in the Middelheim Museum provide a completely new visitor experience.
- A visit of the Flemish Tram and Bus Museum – Vlaams Tram- en Autobusmuseum (VlaTAM) in Antwerp.
- ANTWERP | Discovering queer(ed) art with the Queer Tour at the KMSKA fine arts museum.
- REVIEW | Illusion Antwerpen, an active and photogenic museum.
- Antwerp museums and sports facilities team up with European Disability Card for accessible leisure activities.
- Museum Mayer van den Bergh.
- ANTWERP | Inside Rubens House.
- Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp.
- ANTWERP | Museum Vleeshuis up for restoration.
- BOOK | ‘Antwerp. An Archaeological View on the Origin of the City’ by Tim Bellens.
- Red Star Line Museum.
- Paleis op de Meir.
- DIVA, Antwerp Home of Diamonds.
- ANTWERP | Red Star Line Museum of (e)migration.
