Shining the spotlight on contemporary art for kids in Brussels

02 May 2022

Children in front of a contemporary work of art at MIMA

Brussels has some wonderful surprises in store for fans of contemporary art. And it's not just for adults or passionate art enthusiasts! Did you know that there are plenty of exhibitions that are popular with families? That there are also workshops and activities for children? There's something for even the very youngest of visitors!

Discover here the many opportunities offered by museums and exhibition venues in Brussels to introduce your little monsters to contemporary art. Art has no age limit!

The Maison des Arts

The Maison des Arts is a large neoclassical house that is occupied, every year, by several visual artists. Here, you'll primarily encounter installations and exhibitions that combine visual and digital arts.

Discover the current exhibition during the Dimanches en famille: stories, games and drawings make the visit highly interactive!

Target age group:
The age depends on the exhibition

More information

Children during a visit organised at La Maison des Arts

Design Museum Brussels

The Design Museum Brussels isn't exactly a museum entirely dedicated to contemporary art. It is in fact a design museum, presenting a large collection of plastic design from the 1950s to the present day. Temporary exhibitions are also held within its walls, which allow visitors to discover other materials, themes or periods. The Design Museum Brussels occasionally offers small workshops and courses for children, often linked to its temporary exhibitions. They are a wonderful way to occupy your budding designers!

Target age group:
Children aged 6 to 9

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Children during a workshop organised by the Design Museum Brussels

Art et marges museum

Contemporary art certainly has more than one string to its bow. The Art et marges museum is somewhere to explore outsider art! It has a collection of works created by self-taught artists, during art workshops for people with mental disabilities or by residents in psychiatric settings. Here you can appreciate some 4,000 works realised by more than 200 artists, presented during several temporary exhibitions each year, around a theme, an artist or a collection. Come discover the exhibition with your family!

Target age group:
Children aged 4 and above

More information

Children during a workshop organised by the Art et marges museum

Galila’s P.O.C

Galila's P.O.C is a brand-new venue in the Brussels artistic landscape, a veritable contemporary curiosity cabinet displaying dozens of works by various artists. It is a private art collection, gathered by its owner over the last 15 years. There is no clear common thread... but each work exhibited here reflects one of the collector's visions: her doubts, her questions, her hopes. Let your family be amazed by this collection packed with rich shapes and colours!

Target age group:
Children aged 6 to 12

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WIELS

The WIELS is one of the largest contemporary art centres in the capital. Recognised and emerging artists come here to exhibit their work. Others come here for residencies to produce new works or new ideas. Exhibitions are complemented by guided tours, lectures and workshops. And there's plenty for kids!

Every first and third Sunday of the month, you can join a family visit during Family Fundays: walk through the exhibition with a guide and enjoy a lively and interactive discovery.

Target age group:
Children aged 2 to 12

WIELS also organises a workshop for children every Wednesday: it's a great opportunity for little artists to experiment with a variety of techniques and get their hands dirty.

Target age group:
Children aged 7 to 12

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Fondation Boghossian – Villa Empain

Originally, the Boghossian Foundation worked to improve the living conditions of young people in Lebanon and Armenia. Since it moved into the Villa Empain, it's also running a centre for art and dialogue between the cultures of the East and the West. Their temporary exhibitions are complemented by a variety of activities: conferences, shows, guided tours, screenings, performances, etc. With their school or with their family, children can enjoy a guided tour combined with a creative workshop or an afternoon of storytelling. The Villa Empain, with its remarkable swimming pool, is a magnificent Art Deco house that is worth a visit!

Target age group:
Children aged 6 and above

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La Maison des Arts

La Maison des Arts, a neoclassical bourgeois house, makes its spaces available to rent. Whether for a professional dinner, an event, a seminar or a film shoot, the MdA is suitable for all sorts of events. It's the perfect place to dine in Louis XV and Louis XVI-style salons, enjoy a magnificent garden with a classical look or dance in cellars with an extraordinary atmosphere. Its original setting in the centre of Brussels makes it an exceptional venue.

Contemporary venues

La Maison des Arts

Design Museum Brussels

The Design Museum Brussels, established after the acquisition of a private collection by the Atomium, is a place dedicated to design and its history. Since 2015, the museum's collection, the Plastic Design Collection, circumscribes the landscape of plastics in design from the 1950s to the present day. Alongside this collection, the museum opened Belgisch Design Belge, a new permanent exhibition space dedicated to Belgian design and its history. Enriched by a programme of temporary exhibitions, the Design Museum Brussels also explores other fields of design creation and its impact on society and our daily lives. Through exhibitions, guided tours, workshops, conferences and events, the museum aims to ensure that design is intelligible to one and all.

Design Museum Brussels

Art & marges museum

Located in the heart of Brussels, the Art et marges museum is dedicated to ‘art brut’ or ‘outsider art’. Its collection was built up from the mid-1980s with artworks from self-taught artists and artistic workshops for the mentally disabled and the psychologically fragile. It now comprises over 4,500 international works produced outside the established contemporary art circuit. Its temporary exhibitions bring together artists from both sides of the fringe, questioning the boundaries of art and its very definition.

Art & marges museum

Galila's P.O.C.

Through some twenty eclectic and whimsical themes (such as the eye, the book, the chair or recycling), Galilas' P.O.C. presents an extravagant and striking range of ultra-contemporary artists from all around the globe; from the established to emerging and unrepresented (yet) by galleries. As the guide to her guests(in a reduced number), Galila through her collection promotes the exchange and sharing of her vision and passions, taking us out of our daily routines! Galila’s P.O.C. strives to be a space free from all prejudices and open to the world. Private visits are only under reservation and the program varies, please check the website for more details.

Galila's P.O.C.

Wiels - Contemporary art centre

It was the brewer Léon Wielemans who asked his friend, the architect Adrien Blomme, to design and build the new buildings of his brewery in Forest. It became the leading monument of industrial archaeology in the art deco style, and houses now Wiels, an international laboratory for the creation and the diffusion of contemporary art. Focusing on visual arts, but granting a particular attention to the crossings and interactions with other disciplines, the centre wishes to present contemporary art in all its diversity and to offer a permanent dialogue with the developments and the most recent debates of the art world. The Art centre has a shop, a café and offer an impressive panorama on the city.

Cultural centres

Wiels - Contemporary art centre

Boghossian Foundation - Villa Empain

Opening of Villa Empain to the public according to several themes of organised activities and events (exhibitions, concerts, conferences, etc.) from 2010. La Fondation Boghossian has its international office in Villa Empain, on which restoration work began in 2008. With the Stoclet building, constructed by the Austrian architect Josef Hoffmann in 1911, Villa Empain is undoubtedly one of the finest masterpieces of Art Deco architecture in Brussels. In 1930, Baron Louis Empain, then aged 21 years, had this 2,500-metre-square mansion built on the prestigious Avenue des Nations, which was later renamed Avenue Franklin Roosevelt. He entrusted the building of this fine house to the Swiss architect Michel Polak, assisted by his colleague Alfred Hoch. The plan designed for Baron Empain on a 55-acre plot included a monumental villa with four façades in polished granite, a garden surrounding a swimming pool ornamented with a pergola, and a caretaker's lodge. The modern and luxurious nature of this structure soon aroused enthusiasm and curiosity. It is true that the variety and quality of the materials used (marble, polished granite, bronze, wrought iron, stained-glass windows and precious woods), the sophistication of the details and the coherence of the whole thing with simple but imposing lines immediately contributed to its patrimonial value.

Cultural centres

Boghossian Foundation - Villa Empain

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