OPEN CALL FOR BRUSK: programming revolutionary art festival

Musea Brugge’s brand-new BRUSK exhibition hall will be the new epicentre for pioneering exhibitions and cultural events with an international aura. An oasis of artistic energy in the heart of UNESCO city Bruges, a welcoming haven where everyone can indulge their artistic heart. Are you not afraid of challenges and experiments, and are you full of brilliant and original ideas? Then apply to be the programme manager of the revolutionary arts festival that will put BRUSK on the cultural map.

The festival

BRUSK will open its brand-new doors with an epic arts festival stretching from 18 October 2025 to 8 May 2026 (weekends and holidays only). To this end, Musea Brugge is looking for astute and uncompromising programmers, armed with surprising and ambitious ideas and a solid artistic network. As a programmer, you will put together an opening festival that will put BRUSK on the international cultural map in one fell swoop. A revolutionary festival that shows the world what BRUSK has to offer. 

BRUSK?

BRUSK will be a state-of-the-art museum with world-class exhibitions. A temple of culture and a visionary artistic beacon in the heart of Bruges. BRUSK stands for innovation, unruliness, tension, experimentation, beauty… A creative hotspot. A place with character and friction, where we do not walk in step, but follow our own artistic paths. A bastion of interweaving, where different art forms, cultures and worlds come together under one roof.

For whom?

Curators and programmers from all over the world and from all cultural and creative fields are welcome to apply. Are you a driven, passionate, visionary and original voice? A programmer with guts, expertise and your own cultural network? Join BRUSK’s artistic revolution. 

What we expect

You will launch BRUSK into the cultural firmament with a leading opening festival. Together with your fellow programmers and with Musea Brugge’s talented team, you will create a programme bursting with surprise and energy. You will give the world a taste of what this ground-breaking exhibition hall has to offer. You will come up with a creative and original concept and make a strong selection that is technically and budget-wise feasible. You contact artists, companies, designers… and coordinate the entire process from A to Z. You can count on production support from Musea Brugge.

With your programme, you introduce and activate (the area around) BRUSK and show what the new exhibition hall has to offer. You ensure a strong local embedding of BRUSK and an international reach in the artistic field. Your programme is aimed at a broad audience, with an extra focus on young people, young adults and people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Connecting and creating support is essential. This festival will be a hotbed of encounters and collaborations, with different target groups, with the local and national artistic field, with partners and companies, with digital communities.

You commit from November 2023 to May 2025 (dates subject to change). 

What we offer you

– A unique opportunity to engage in an international and national cultural network
– Substantive and production feedback by curators and staff of Musea Brugge
– A market-based remuneration for the elaboration and coordination of the festival, including all possible expenses such as accommodation or travel.
– A solid all-in budget for the production of the festival.
– Production support.

Apply

Are you the fearless programmer of this groundbreaking arts festival? We are eager to hear your visionary ideas. Send your original concept text for the festival, together with your motivation and CV, to elviera.velghe@brugge.be. Do not forget to clearly describe your references, demonstrable experience and your (inter)national network. 

Deadline: 16/10/2023

Procedure

A jury consisting of cultural and international actors will consider the submissions. Based on the assessment of the submitted proposals, a maximum of 5 programmers will be invited for an interview. You will then be appointed as a programmer from 1 November 2023.

Questions? 

Contact Elviera Velghe (Director Musea Brugge – Public and exhibitions) elviera.velghe@brugge.be

Website BRUSK: www.bruskbrugge.be