Open letter to the Minister of Culture on behalf of the national heritage libraries
We learned with dismay that the Flemish Government is scrapping the entire operating subsidy for the three nationally recognized heritage libraries.
Together, our institutions face a loss of one million euros per year. Slashing a subsidy by a full 100 percent is not a routine budget cut. It is a deliberate policy choice to abandon an entire subsector.
That choice is at odds with the policy that Flanders itself has outlined. In 2021, the Flemish Parliament approved a new Cultural Heritage Decree, in which heritage libraries were explicitly given a place as collection-managing organizations, alongside museums and cultural archive institutions.
The Flemish Government is now dismantling the very logic of its own decree. This is not a technical cost-saving measure, but an attempt to rewrite cultural policy through the budget. If the government believes heritage libraries no longer have a place in Flemish cultural policy, it should hold that debate openly in parliament.
Far more is at stake than funding alone. Heritage libraries operate at the intersection of heritage, science, education, literature, and the arts. Our collections are not merely the culmination of centuries of cultural production; they are the raw material for new knowledge, storytelling, and creation. They are also the launching pad for public engagement and lifelong learning. Investing in them means investing in both our shared past and the future of Flemish culture.
In her Strategic Vision Note for the Arts and Cultural Heritage, the Minister emphasizes the essential coherence between these fields, calling for greater cross-sectoral collaboration. One cannot champion a more connected cultural ecosystem while severing one of its vital links.
Authors, artists, and other creators do not create in a vacuum. They draw on language, images, ideas, and stories that came before them. Heritage libraries preserve these sources, make them discoverable, and put them back into circulation. Just as humus arises from what previously lived and perished, art never arises from nothing. Heritage collections nourish the imagination and are transformed into new art, knowledge, and stories, which in turn add yet another layer.
Furthermore, a collection is not a neutral warehouse, but the result of conscious choices about what we preserve. Heritage is therefore not only a source of inspiration or research, but also a counter-player: it invites makers and researchers to select, reinterpret, supplement, and contradict. Investing in preservation, management, digitization, and accessibility is investing in the imagination of authors, artists, makers, researchers, and—directly or indirectly—every Fleming.
This responsibility is more crucial than ever. In the age of artificial intelligence, authentic historical sources serve as critical raw material for digital applications and learning models. While commercial tech companies show immense interest in digitizing these sources without taking responsibility for their physical preservation, the government is cutting the very resources required to protect them. While the government encourages institutions to seek a sustainable future for their historical collections in heritage libraries and archives, those same heritage organizations are losing the resources to assume precisely that responsibility. Ultimately, this decision is not just about one million euros. It comes down to a fundamental question:
What Flanders itself built up through a decree and deliberate parliamentary debate must not be dismantled just a few years later through a mere budget decision—least of all without reopening that fundamental debate. Whoever weakens the sources of our knowledge and culture today restricts tomorrow's raw material for everyone who builds the Flanders of tomorrow.
On behalf of the three nationally recognized heritage libraries:
- Koen Calis - director, Public Library Brugge
- Rosemie Callewaert - director, University Library Ghent - Boekentoren
- Sam Capiau - director, Heritage Library Hendrik Conscience
