Following the major success of the Year of Art Nouveau in 2023, the Brussels-Capital Region has confirmed its ambitious strategy for showcasing its architectural and cultural heritage in 2025 by dedicating the year to Art Deco, as part of the centenary of the 1925 Paris International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts.
Spearheaded by urban.brussels and visit.brussels, in close collaboration with a wide network of institutional, cultural, associative and municipal partners, the Year of Art Deco offered a fresh take on this emblematic movement of the inter-war period. Beyond the aesthetic and architectural approach, the programme put into perspective the social, economic and cultural contexts of the period, bringing together the issues of modernity, social transformation and crises with contemporary challenges such as sustainable development, the fight against discrimination, the decolonisation of knowledge and intergenerational exchanges.
A rich, decentralised and accessible programme
Exhibitions, festivals, guided tours, lectures, screenings, festive events and publications punctuated the year, taking in iconic Art Deco buildings as well as lesser-known buildings and districts, museums, private venues and public spaces. This geographical decentralisation highlighted the architectural wealth of all 19 communes in the region.
Guided tours were one of the pillars of the programme, offering the public privileged access to places that were sometimes exceptionally open. The Brussels Art Nouveau Art Deco Festival (BANAD), held in March 2025, drew almost 23,000 participants, confirming its major role in promoting Brussels’ heritage.
Heritage Days 2025 was one of the highlights of the year, with more than 200 venues and activities, special attention paid to accessibility and increased visibility for all audiences.
The 24 exhibitions organised in a wide range of venues explored Art Deco from a variety of angles – architecture, design, decorative arts, fashion, leisure, gastronomy – and were an outstanding success, with several of them setting attendance records, notably at the Villa Empain, the Maison & Jardins Van Buuren, the Basilique nationale du Sacré-Coeur, the BELvue Museum, Halles Saint-Géry and Train World. The opening of new permanent galleries at the Royal Museums of Art and History also provided a lasting boost to the regional museum offering.
The programme was based on a broad mobilisation of cultural and museum institutions, various associations such as Pro Vélo, ARAU, Arkadia, Korei, Bruxelles Bavard, Itinéraires, the Brussels Art Deco Society, CIVA and numerous partner municipalities, including Anderlecht, Schaerbeek, Forest, Ixelles, Koekelberg, Ganshoren and the City of Brussels. Together, these players have come up with a multilingual and accessible offer, based on a variety of themes: monumental and domestic architecture, public facilities, leisure facilities, industrial heritage and residential districts.
The Year of Art Deco 2025 has also highlighted a series of key sites that are accessible all year round, enabling the public to discover Art Deco independently and continuously. This increased accessibility was reflected in the development of the Art Nouveau Pass, which became the Art Nouveau Art Déco Pass, incorporating several Art Déco venues in addition to the Art Nouveau sites. In 2025, 6,949 passes were sold and scanned 12,840 times, confirming the public’s interest in a combined experience and the discovery of emblematic sites throughout the Region.
“We are honoured by the exceptional public interest in the Art Deco gems of our heritage, sometimes subtle and sometimes exuberant, which are the soul and charm of Brussels. The enthusiasm of visitors rewards the work of knowledge, preservation and promotion of heritage undertaken by Urban and its partners. Art Deco Year 2025 is coming to an end, but the efforts to raise awareness of the treasures in our environment will leave a lasting and positive mark,” says Sarah Lagrillière, Deputy Director General of Urban.
A lasting legacy and prospects beyond 2025
Beyond its quantitative results, Art Deco Year 2025 has generated a significant knock-on effect. Several institutions have seen a marked increase in attendance, and some exhibitions have been extended due to their success. Conferences and guided tours devoted to Art Deco are already scheduled for 2026.
Above all, the Year of Art Deco has encouraged the creation and strengthening of lasting synergies between public institutions, cultural players, associations and local authorities, laying the foundations for long-term collaboration on a regional scale. These dynamics illustrate the relevance of a coordinated approach to heritage, capable on the one hand of raising the profile of Brussels’ heritage and passing it on to the general public, and on the other of providing support to players in the cultural, associative and economic sectors by ensuring that its effects are felt over time.
Because Art Nouveau and Art Deco are intrinsically linked to the identity of our city, and are a source of international and cultural attraction, the Brussels Region intends to continue, with all its partners, to promote its heritage treasures in the years to come.
