Permeke Museum in Jabbeke closes

In 2018 the Flemish Community announced that it had earmarked 7,774,200 euros for the renovation of the Permeke Museum in Jabbeke and Mu.ZEE in Ostend. For the Permeke Museum, the start of the renovation work is soon to become reality.

The museum, the garden and the temporary exhibition Rein Dufait are closing today, 10 days earlier than planned, in response to the measures taken by the Flemish government to combat the corona pandemic. The museum will be completely reorganised before reopening.

The renovation of the Permeke Museum is a nice opportunity for the museum team. The museum content will be completely rethought, and more attention will be paid to the visitor experience, starting with a completely new visitor entrance and a ‘salon’ that will offer space for all sorts of activities. Along with a communications bureau we are investigating how the artist Permeke and the museum, as a brand, can be made more attractive in the 21st century. The rooms will be refurbished in line with the rules of conservation and management (air-conditioning) and a scenographer will be brought in for the reorganisation. After the renovation, the garden will be used more intensively as an exhibition park, to show, among other things, contemporary art in relation to Permeke. The possibility of setting up a Friends of Permeke group is also being considered.

In addition, the Permeke Museum wants to consolidate and strengthen the collaborations with various partners, including the municipality of Jabbeke, Westtoer and Toerisme Vlaanderen. In this context, talks were held in late summer this year to discuss how to bring the local population and companies closer to the Permeke Museum. The major Permeke exhibition planned for 2027 was also on the agenda. This exhibition is part of the series on the Flemish Masters Ensor, Spilliaert and Permeke (Ensor in 2024, Permeke in 2027 and Spilliaert in 2031).

Despite corona, the Permeke Museum will close 2020 with good figures. Under the motto, ‘holiday in our own country’ the museum saw visitor numbers increase by more than 200% on some days. Since the Permeke Museum reopened, on 18 May, and the garden was opened to the public, many interested visitors have found their way there. For some their visit meant a pleasant introduction to Constant Permeke and his work, for others it was an enjoyable rediscovery. Rein Dufait entered into a dialogue with the Large Seascape and other works by Permeke. Exceptionally, the JazzyFridays were streamed this year and reached a much wider audience. By streaming, the Permeke Museum wanted to give heart to the artists and musicians in this difficult period. Studio Permeke, with its summer camps for children, was run in accordance with strict corona rules and, even this year, was filled to capacity in no time at all. Studio Permeke will be back after the renovation!