Art Nouveau Year 2023 remarkable success: more than 1 million visitors

In 1893, the world's first art nouveau building was inaugurated in Brussels with Hotel Tassel by Victor Horta. Exactly 130 years later, former Brussels Secretary of State for Urban Planning and Heritage Pascal Smet launched the Brussels Art Nouveau Year with the support of Brussels Prime Minister Rudi Vervoort and Sven Gatz, Brussels Minister responsible for the Image of Brussels. Ans Persoons, current Brussels Secretary of State for Urban Planning and Heritage, continued the initiative. The Brussels Art Nouveau Year became a remarkable success with more than 1,000,000 visitors from home and abroad.

"Brussels is the absolute cradle of Art Nouveau, but too few people knew about it. In 2023, we changed that. Thanks to the art nouveau year, Brussels is now the undisputed art nouveau capital of the world! The many art nouveau activities managed to entice more than 1 million visitors," says Secretary of State Ans Persoons.

"We have had a very successful art nouveau year, thanks to the efforts and support of the Brussels Government. Brussels has really established itself as the cradle of this art movement," comments Minister Sven Gatz.

"Brussels is the scene of about a thousand art nouveau buildings and more than 200 of them are protected as historical monuments. This confirms Brussels' position as the most important art nouveau city in the world. It is a touristic asset, and the 2023 figures also show that. Almost 5 million people visited our museums and heritage, and among them 8,400 visitors who bought an art nouveau pass to discover our gems. Thus, we surpassed the record year of 2019. So it is with great satisfaction that I look back on the past year," explains Prime Minister Rudi Vervoort.

A success of international proportions

Brussels is the scene of a thousand Art Nouveau buildings. More than 200 are protected as monuments and four of them are even UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In other words, our capital is an open-air art nouveau museum. Yet until recently, it was mainly heritage enthusiasts who were fully aware of this.

The Art Nouveau Year 2023 changed this. Urban.brussels, visit.brussels, the Brussels municipalities and many museums and organisations joined forces, resulting in a success story. For an entire year, people could immerse themselves in the world of art nouveau and it did not go unnoticed. There was a lot of attention from domestic and foreign media. Including extensive reports in The Financial Times, Le Figaro, and numerous other media. Priceless publicity for Brussels.

The highlights

More than 140 activities, including 40 exhibitions, were organised last year across the city. The most high-profile exhibitions were undoubtedly 'Victor Horta and the Grammar of Art Nouveau' at BOZAR, 'Victor Horta versus Art Nouveau. Horta's vocabulary' at the Horta Museum and 'Josef Hoffmann - Under the spell of beauty' at the Museum of Art & History. In the latter, the public could see the interior of the Stoclet Palace for the first time via a 3D reconstruction.

All art nouveau exhibitions combined were visited by more than 600,000 people. The art nouveau year thus makes a nice contribution to the absolute record year of Brussels museums. These welcomed 4,980,000 visitors last year, up 20% on 2022. The special art nouveau pass from visit.brussels, which allowed people to visit three art nouveau sites or exhibitions for €20, was purchased 8,390 times.

Besides the exhibitions, visits to art nouveau houses were also very popular.

Brussels has a policy of protecting and renovating heritage as well as opening it up to the public. Several art nouveau gems have been open to the public for quite some time. Just ask Brad Pitt who came to admire Victor Horta's personal residence in 2021.

Other art nouveau houses were not open until recently. Pascal Smet and Ans Persoons made significant efforts to open the Solvay House (since 2021), the Cauchie House (2021), the Van Eetvelde Hotel (May 2023) and the Hannon House (June 2023) to the public. And that public eagerly took advantage of it. In just a few months, the Hannon House received 38,000 visitors and the Van Eetvelde Hotel was visited 20,000 times.

Just next to the Van Eetvelde Hotel, in Van Eetvelde's former office, Lab.AN, a space for the promotion and interpretation of art nouveau, was set up on the occasion of the art nouveau year. Here, special attention is also being given to the inextricable link between art nouveau and colonialism. Lab.AN also hosts RANN (Réseau Art Nouveau Network), the global network of art nouveau cities of which Brussels is president.

Special Stamp

Last year, many events were given an art nouveau touch. Major festive events such as the Bright Brussels light festival and the Iris Festival were also exceptionally centred around art nouveau.

The programme of the annual Heritage Days and the Brussels Art Nouveau & Art Deco Festival 'BANAD' was built around well-known and lesser-known Brussels art nouveau masterpieces. Bpost released a special stamp series to mark art nouveau year 2023.

Looking ahead

It should be obvious: Brussels has strengthened its position as global cradle and capital of art nouveau over the past year. The Art Nouveau Year 2023 may be over, but the level of ambition has only increased in the past year. Brussels will continue to protect, renovate, open up and promote its heritage. For instance, a lighting plan has been launched to make the many art nouveau gems shine not only in daylight, but also at night.

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