Rubens, Rembrandt, Vermeer — the usual Golden Age story. But where are the women? Ghent’s MSK exhibition restores dozens of forgotten female artists to the picture. Their work was everywhere - even if their names vanished.
Opening tomorrow in Ghent: Unforgettable, a major exhibition at the MSK on women artists of the 17th-century Low Countries. More than 150 works reveal how painters, sculptors and lace-makers helped shape the Golden Age - even if art history later forgot them.
"It was a purely defensive move to hit him in the face. Because I knew that he would react when I hit him in the face."
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Was thrilled to meet Robert Cailliau, the unsung internet pioneer, who was instrumental in the development of the web. Yes, he's Belgian - and he still keeps a model Tintin rocket in his office: www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/1983...
Bill White, the US Ambassador to Belgium, is doubling down on his bid to ensure that local investigators - and politicians - drop oversight of religious circumcision rituals: www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/1983...
🍽️ Waffles, crêpes, dairy-free cheese – plus art and events. And Geoff Meade reminiscing about life in Erps-Kwerps.
Belgium has never lacked brains – only sometimes the confidence to trust them.
This issue is about the people who think, build, question and remember – and why that still matters.
👌 Butlers and etiquette experts: @dennisabbott.bsky.social meets the manners masters.
We take a weekend break to Arlon, explore the Auderghem cemetery, and visit the family distilleries and breweries reinventing themselves.
🕰️ Landscapes marked by memory.
Extraordinary aerial photographs reveal the scarred geometry of World War One, while pics from Ghent show life under occupation.
Plus: @tomisitt.bsky.social on the 1919 battlefield bike race, today’s wartime cycle tours, and the search for Lt. William Bastard.
🚧 A city rethinking itself.
Are Brussels’ ageing tunnels relics of another era? Could closing some of them help the capital breathe again? Pascal Smet thinks so.
Plus, the Résidence Palace turns 100: @goodclimate.bsky.social celebrates the extraordinary city-in-a-block
🔭 Belgium looks to the skies – and within.
From stargazers scanning for life beyond Earth to boffins decoding immune responses, this issue follows the quiet work of discovery.
Plus:
• Internet icon Robert Cailliau on keeping the web free
• Philippe Van Parijs on Belgium’s evolving democracy
🧠 What happens when expertise falls out of fashion?
Tim King explores Belgium’s Royal Academies – two centuries of scholarship navigating politics, language and change – and ask whether institutions built on careful thinking can still thrive in an age of noise.
✨ The new issue of The Brussels Times Magazine is out!
From royal academies to road tunnels, wartime landscapes to distant galaxies, quiet tech pioneers to stubborn institutions – this issue explores how Belgians make sense of a complicated world.
Robert Duvall as Boo Radley, in To Kill A Mockingbird
All for bells (are you really going to grunt, “Bike”?). But surprisingly hard to find ones that fit road bike handlebars
In these troubled times, it is hard to find fun. So I invite everyone to check out the trailer for Melania.
It is, of course, as ludicrous as we might imagine, but the real joy begins in the comments, inexplicably left open: m.youtube.com/watch?v=dxXJ...
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Stay free
This year marks ten years since Brexit, a calamity without parallel. There are no benefits to speak of whatsoever. Alas, reversing this disaster will not be easy: inews.co.uk/opinion/you-...
Since Trump returned to the White House, Europe has tried to manage him with patience, flattery and quiet diplomacy.
His Greenland threats could be the tipping point.
It's not just a crisis for the continent but a seismic shift.
Me on the challenges ahead: inews.co.uk/news/world/u...
Europe's far-right keeps rising, using Trump's populist playbook: inews.co.uk/news/world/m...
The new, massive Kanal venue is set to open in November in Brussels after many long years of works - but they already seem to have locked in their artists and shows
Dunno about you, but I'm starting to have doubts about the FIFA Peace Prize
This is Saint Jerome with a lion, from whose paw he removed a thorn.
It is also me when I work from home with the cat.
Momentum is building within the Labour Party for the UK to rejoin the EU’s customs union. However, it is likely to be much harder than they think: inews.co.uk/news/politic...
Was struck by how Bart De Wever, in his Friday morning presser, was getting so deeply in the weeds of EU financing - he may be a Flemish nationalist, but as a Belgian, he'll do his homework
What's at stake today as EU leaders meet to figure out how to keep Ukraine going in its grinding war - and whether they can use Russia's frozen assets: inews.co.uk/news/world/m...
EU leaders are meeting today in Brussels for one of the most important summits in years as they try to find billions to fund Ukraine….
…but angry farmers are laying siege to the summit neighbourhood, literally setting up fires and bellyaching about trade deals
UK set to announce return to Erasmus for 2027: inews.co.uk/news/politic...
Revealed: Belgium's controversial Congo sculpture is hiding in plain sight on Jeffrey Epstein’s island – and no one noticed until now. www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/1869...
There are only a few of us with both 🇬🇧 and 🇧🇪 citizenship….but one, Lando Norris, just won the Formula 1 title today: www.bbc.com/sport/formul...
How long can a city function without a government? The Brussels Capital Region has been unable to form an administration since elections in June 2024, a record-breaking 542 days.
Bruzz interviewed me on how expats see the impasse: www.bruzz.be/actua/samenl...
