Hangar: Between an Art Center and a Contemporary Photography Museum?
Hangar allows you to "experience photography" by enjoying museum-like exhibitions, curated by a dedicated team and designed with quality and originality. Each photo exhibition is a new experience! Hangar is often considered as Brussels' photography museum. So, is it rightfully so?
A Photography Museum for Brussels?
Located in the heart of Brussels, Hangar is an exhibition space for contemporary photography open to all audiences. Seeing a photo exhibition at Hangar means experiencing the medium in all its facets.
Indeed, the goal is twofold:
Introduce all audiences to the contemporary photography scene, both Belgian and international, in all its breadth. Hangar takes a museum-like approach to exhibitions, with a focus on transmission and didactic approach. Hangar offers its visitors various experiences in terms of reflection and knowledge sharing through a program of lectures, workshops, guided tours, and artist encounters.
Support artists, both emerging and established, through funding for the production of their works, presenting their work in the exhibition, selling their books in the bookshop, and acquiring photography for the Hangar collection. An exhibition space for photography for the general public that builds a collection, preserves it, and makes it available to other institutions: this is how Hangar resembles the photography museum of Brussels.
Support for Photography
The goal of this "almost" private photo museum is non-profit. The proceeds from ticket sales are fully donated to the non-profit organization Photo Art & Culture, which aims to support events that promote photography, such as the PhotoBrussels Festival. Additional financial support is provided for artistic creation, the publication of artists' books, exhibition catalogs, and more.
Photography Museum or Art Center?
Moreover, Hangar is also a place for research and experimentation in the medium. Through its programmatic choices, it aims to showcase the full extent and creative power of photography. Its mission, beyond organizing exhibitions, is forward-looking. Over 300 works are produced each year in close collaboration with the artists. Like an art center, Hangar places the artist and their project at the core of its activities, offering financial, technical, and intellectual support.
Its Unique Identity
This work, at the very source of creation and the medium, forces Hangar to consider eco-friendly means of production. Indeed, Hangar is connected to the world and its significant changes. Museum of photography or art center dedicated to photography? Hangar has found its unique identity by offering museum-like exhibitions with strong themes for all audiences and by supporting contemporary creation and its artists.
From Photography Museum-Art Center to Photo Gallery
Supporting contemporary creation also involves guiding artists in the commercialization of their works. Additionally, art collectors need guidance when purchasing photographic prints. Furthermore, the field of contemporary art adheres to specific and precise rules. This is why, in response to the combined demand of artists and collectors, Hangar has created the activity: Hangar Gallery. Here lies Hangar's uniqueness: a physical space for museum exhibitions in Brussels, support for artistic creation that leads to the development of a gallery activity.