Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art

Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art organises exhibitions of contemporary art and an accompanying public program at Vleeshal Markt in Middelburg, the Netherlands.

Vleeshal Markt is located in Middelburg’s former town hall, on the market square. Characterized by its distinct Gothic architecture, Vleeshal Markt is a unique space. The venue has inspired many artists to create extraordinary exhibitions, bringing Vleeshal international renown. Under the directorship of the current director Roos Gortzak, artists such as Cally Spooner, Ola Vasiljeva, Amanda Ross-Ho and Marina Pinsky have developed new works. Besides solo shows, Vleeshal presents at least one thematic group exhibition per year.

Until recently, Vleeshal also organised exhibitions in a second exhibition space: Vleeshal Zusterstraat. As a result of municipal cutbacks, Vleeshal Zusterstraat closed on October 1, 2017. The library of Vleeshal Zusterstraat is now on long-term loan at the library of Zeeland and will be accessible to the public in 2018. This collection of publications is focussed on contemporary art and includes monographs, critical analyses, catalogues and works on artists who have exhibited at Vleeshal.

In 2015 Vleeshal kicked of its nomadic programme, as an extension of its existing exhibition programme in Middelburg. Since then, Vleeshal has collaborated with, amongst others, Amsterdam Art Weekend, Art Rotterdam, POPPOSITIONS and Spring Performance Festival, where performances and works by Oceans Academy of Arts (OAOA), Freddie Mercado, Les Trucs, Andreas Arndt and Simone Forti, have been shown.

In its current and future programming, Vleeshal focusses on the relations between current developments in contemporary art and the early exhibitions in Vleeshal from the ‘70s – when experimental forms of music, dance, fine arts and performance were brought together in new and interesting ways. Performance and performativity in contemporary art have played an important role in the programming of the last few years.

As a city, Middelburg offers the possibility of international and meaningful collaborations. On the one hand Vleeshal is far removed from other presentation institutions in the larger cities of the Netherlands. On the other hand it is centrally located between those same cities, Paris, London and Cologne. From this position, Vleeshal has built a tradition of international collaborations with other institutions.

As the only one of its kind in Zeeland, it is of great importance to an institution like Vleeshal to also maintain a local network and to be a welcoming and interesting place for exhibitions and activities for its local audience. Vleeshal aims to do so by working with local partners and by paying attention to artists from the region in the two-monthly public programme ‘So You Don’t Get Lost in the Neighborhood’, where local artists are invited to take their audience to inspiring and interesting places in Zeeland.

Vleeshal's other tasks also involve the implementation of Middelburg’s policy for art in the public space; the composition, management, maintenance and restoration of the municipal art collection, including public artworks. Vleeshal is also responsible for the execution of council policy on subsidies to artists from Middelburg. The subsidy commission is composed of three members: Tamara Dees, Valerie Verhack and Rieke Vos. Vleeshal receives financial support from the council of Middelburg and the Mondriaan Fund.