The particularly difficult situation experienced by Brussels in 2015 and 2016 (lockdown after the Paris attacks, attacks in Brussels, the tunnel crisis, etc.) has prompted Brussels cultural operators (OCs) to look more deeply into the question of their (spatial) accessibility, their audiences and their mobility practices. This question was already very present among the concerns of the OCs before the dramatic events that we have just recalled and has not disappeared today with the “return to normal”, quite the contrary. There is no question of denying the weight of economic, social and cultural determinants in access to culture and, in particular, to the offer of cultural operators, but it is a question of wondering whether the difficulties of travelling are not also a major obstacle and a factor likely to distance certain audiences, living in CBR or elsewhere, from the cultural offer of Brussels. It is also a question of initiating a joint reflection on the opportunity for the cultural sector to promote softer forms of mobility in response to current ecological imperatives.
The exploratory study that has just been read was limited to the 78 RAB/BKO member OCs that welcome audiences. It is an exploratory study in the sense that the aim was not to carry out an exhaustive or representative analysis of the Brussels cultural sector, but to identify the available data and to experiment with possible methods of investigation, at the expense of the sector and its competent authorities, or of the individual FBOs, who would then be responsible for carrying out more comprehensive studies.
Various types of lessons can be drawn from this exploratory study: methodological lessons, analyses of the substance and courses of action. All of these will have to be discussed with the RAB/BKO and the cultural operators, before being discussed with the competent authorities and transport operators.