The BARN Core Team facilitates a form of long-term research-through-practice across the network. Collective intelligence is channelled through the circulation of knowledge, strategies, needs, dreams and survival tactics of artist-run initiatives. Below you find what we are working on now, followed by the four areas of our work.

Current research projects

(upcoming) Belgian Artist-Run Hangout 2027

In 2027 we want to bring together the people behind artist-run initiatives across Belgium. The aim is to get to know each other, learn from each other’s experiences, challenges and solutions, and discuss the unique position of the artist-run scene in the arts ecology. It will be co-organised with other artist-run initiatives as part of OFFestival, an artist-run festival BARN already took part in in 2026.

The BARN Core Team four areas of work:

1. Sharing information and resources

We facilitate the exchange of information, resources and knowledge, both locally and internationally.

A monthly compilation of the shared agenda of this website, plus non-event announcements from the broader network. A separate section is dedicated to news from the BARN Core Team. It reaches 148 independent artist-run and curator-run initiatives and a wealth of individuals.

Telegram group

From early on, the Telegram group has been the central forum of the network. People use it to find out what’s going on, ask questions and come up with answers, offer and find workspace, housing, jobs and residencies, and ask the community for help. It brings together people from all artistic disciplines across 26 thematic topics: events, space for work, space to live, materials shops & tools, jobs, protest, knowledge sharing, the art workers attest, residencies, subsidies, parenthood, and more.

Artist-Run Publishing

A publishing channel for texts on artist-run initiatives, networks, scenes and logics.

Website

We keep developing this open-source platform as a soft mapping of the Brussels artist-run scene, and as a tool to share news, resources and research.

Networking

Continuous informal networking, connecting and bridge-building, both in person and by email at contact@brusselsartistrun.net.

2. Community building

We create time and space for artists to come together, fostering environments of solidarity, trust and care.

Tours

Biking and walking tours visiting two to four artist-run spaces in a neighbourhood.

Hangouts and dinners

Hangouts without a specific programme, as easy-access occasions to meet other people. Informal dinners where we cook together and reflect on each other’s work.

International Artist-Run Hangout

In 2024 we organised an international hangout with fellow artist-run networks from Amsterdam, Berlin, Liège, Venice and Prague. Before it, we made extended visits to Venice and Prague.

3. Research

We research the artist-run scene: what initiatives exist, how they work, what we can learn from them and how we can help them

Soft inventory and adaptable methods

A living cartography of Brussels’ artist-run initiatives, mapping spaces, financial and legal setups, and community dynamics. The questions we ask:
What do you do? How do you manage? What are your motivations? What resources do you have? (space, equipment, software, special skills, knowledge, contacts, etc.) What do you need? What have you learnt?
From what we learn, we develop methods that other informal networks can adapt, to promote collaboration and strengthen self-organisation.

Policy research

Research on policy concerning artist-run spaces at local, national and European level, linked to the Artist Workspace Memorandum 2025–2030. It covers statistics and lived experience of the strengths and needs of Brussels’ artist scene, policy gaps in Brussels, policy in other cities, and good and bad practices. We are now developing it into a Policy Support Document, a more extensive follow-up to the Memorandum.

Brussels Artist-Run Reader

A reader compiled to show why affordable, qualitative and long-term workspace for artists matters in Brussels, a city that is becoming increasingly expensive.

4. Advocacy

We explore ways to unite actors so that we can speak with one voice on critical issues.

Spaces for Spaces: The Value of Space for Artistic Work

A series of public thematic conversations with invited stakeholders and artistic interventions. We map the value of workspace from artistic and social, rather than financial, points of view. The goal is a framework of competing values for space for artistic work in the city. Spaces for Spaces: The Value of Space for Artistic Work, a series of public conversations with invited stakeholders and artistic interventions, working towards a framework of competing values.

Artist Workspace Memorandum 2025–2030

A collective memorandum addressed to elected officials and municipal administrations, and later to regional ones. It calls for policy for workspaces for artists and art workers, studio collectives, laboratories and so on, since policies around our places of production hardly exist yet.