Mission and vision

Mission

The Flemish Art Collection offers services and infrastructure to museums in Flanders in order to ensure for them that:

• Metadata are normalised and enhanced and museums can implement an organisation-specific image policy;
• Digital collections can be made available for reuse through a flexible and open information system;
• Digitalised heritage becomes visible and (re)used;
• Various museum-related processes become automated.

In addition, the Flemish Art Collection remains a partnership of visual arts museums that enables:

• Visual art museums to reinforce their art or cultural-historical scientific policy;
• Visual art museums to establish a deliberated collection policy and to promote a deliberated collection mobility.

Vision

The Flemish Art Collection, the nodal point for museum collections, is controlled by recognised museums in Flanders and by experts, acquainted with themes and practices that are relevant for museums.

The Flemish Art Collection strives to be a ‘sustainable’ organisation through permanent improvement upon the museum and community domain, by including economic, environmental and social considerations into the overall activity in an integrated and coherent manner through a systematic approach and by engaging the stakeholders with its activity.

The Flemish Art Collection wants to be an 'open' organisation. They manage a corporate philosophy by which the emphasis lies upon transparency, free access to knowledge and information and cooperative management. The Flemish Art Collection utilises open content, open access, open architecture and open-source codes.

The Flemish Art Collection works within a 'standardised' context so that (inter)national exchange and reuse of knowledge and expertise becomes possible.

The Flemish Art Collection works 'hands-on and result-oriented'. The organisation does not wish to step into the place of museums and museum colleagues, but rather guide and support them in the laying down of effective and efficient results upon which they can further build.

The Flemish Art Collection highly values ‘collaboration and synchronisation’. The organisation permanently seeks partnerships and complementary situations both within and without of the cultural-heritage field, both inside and outside of the subsidised sector.

Objectives

The Flemish Art Collection serves to submit a policy plan to the Flemish Government every five years. The objectives and the action points that belong to these policy plans are only available in Dutch. During the course of the policy period, objectives and actions are also adjusted on the basis of the current practice or new insights.

The primary operational objectives of the Flemish Art Collection are the following:

The Flemish Art Collection:

• Supports (groups of) interested museums in the normalising and enhancement of metadata and the execution of an organisation-specific image policy.
• Compiles, manages, documents and promotes a flexible and open information system that interested museums must grant access to their digitized collection as being available for reuse.
• Works, along with meemoo and other organisations, on permanent vision development, research and development concerning digitization within the museum sector.
• Sets up international presentation and aggregation tools with (groups of) interested museums and, as such, makes the digitized collections visible for various user groups.
• Helps (groups of) interested museums to automate their museum-related procedures.
• Wants to work on digital competencies and skills in collaboration with other heritage actors as well as formal and informal educational organisations. The VKC offers training, instruction and hands-on support for this.
• Confirms to the international norm with regards to Socially Responsible Business.
• Implements a practice-orientated bundling of powers with Flemish museums, inter alia, in the function of an enhanced collection mobility and a consulted collection policy as well as the synchronisation of scientific activities amongst the museums and the Flemish universities.