This academic year, the final-year students in Tourism and Leisure Management at the Erasmushogeschool Brussel are making every effort to develop innovative touristic and recreational concepts in the context of Brussels’ bid to be European Capital of Culture in 2030.
‘Bruxellois.es’ is the project of the third-year students in Tourism and Leisure Management at the Erasmus Brussels University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Brussels (EhB). In the context of their bachelor thesis about the touristic and recreative aspects of Brussels’ candidacy for European Cultural Capital in 2030, they interviewed Bruxellois.es, but also commuters, expats and tourists, about their images of the future for (culture in) Brussels.
The project is part of a wider research project of the knowledge centre Open Time|Applied Futures Research of the same institution about imaginations for the future of culture in Brussels.
Contacts: Dr. Eva De Smedt (eva.de.smedt@ehb.be)
1. General introduction of the project (end of September 2021)
2. Kick-off by Prof. Eric Corijn and Jan Goossens, co-curator of Brussels 2030 (mid October 2021)
3. Urban field trip to Marseille (end of October 2021)
4. Workshop with BNA-BBOT (November 2021)
In November, Ruby Bernabou-Plous of BNA-BBOT, a Brussels-based non-profit organisation recording non-tangible heritage on audio, introduced the group of students to mounting audio material. This guided them in the right direction for making the most of their street interviews.
5. Collecting images of the futures of the Bruxellois.es
In the next research phase, the students sounded out the Bruxellois.es about their preferable images of the futures for culture and leisure in Brussels in 2039, 9 years after the Brussels 2030 project. If Brussels 2030 wants to succeed in becoming the broad ‘city project’ it intends to be, it needs to take account not only of the upcoming years up until 2030, but also of the aspirations of its dwellers, tourists and commuters. That is exactly what are students did: interviewing people on the streets and in the in-between places about their projections and wishes for the city’s future. The result of this exercise can be found on the Bruxellois.es-section of this blog.
6. Pitches of first innovative touristic and/or recreative concepts (December 2021)
7. Presenting the final results
As a final stage, the students presented their research results for a jury of external work partners and internal lecturers. After their internal defense, the group headed to the CENTRALE for Contemporary Art in the city center, where they presented their work.
BNA-BBOT presented an audio compilation of the students’ explorations of futures for leisure and culture and Brussels in 2039. Don’t miss out to listen! ☝️
Et après? Let’s wait and see! Stay tuned on this website or contact Eva De Smedt (eva.de.smedt@ehb.be) for more information about everything that is still in the pipeline. To be continued!
