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The VOORUIT people’s house: 100/30 years of (im)material patrimony

In 2013 the Vooruit Arts Center celebrated its 30th birthday as well as the one hundredth anniversary of the imposing Vooruit building. For this occasion the cultural heritage project 'The Vooruit people's house: 100/30 years of (immaterial) patrimony was developed.

The 'Vooruit Festivities Hall', designed by architect Ferdinand Dierkens, opened its doors in 1913 as a socialist palace of celebration. For decades the Vooruit functioned as the cultural bastion of the Socialist movement in Ghent. In 1982 it was transformed into an independent socio-cultural center. In the 1990s it grew into an internationally renowned art center.

Goals of the project

  1. In the first place, the aim was to collect material patrimony objects related to the Vooruit people’s house. Aside from the building itself, such patrimony included archival material, posters, pictures, films and other visual materials.
  2. The second goal of the project concerned the collection and conservation of witness testimonies of the 100/30 year history of the Vooruit. This project made use of the method of oral history to collect and analyze the testimony of those who experienced this history first hand.
  3. A number of other initiatives were undertaken in order to bring the Vooruit's history to the public:
  • A large exhibition dealing with the history of the Vooruit was open to the public from the 1st of May until the 1st of December 2013 in Ghent's city museum, STAM. '100 years Vooruit' dealt with the Vooruit building as a place of encounter, culture and engagement. The exhibition was a collaboration between STAM, Ghent University, Amsab-ISG, Vooruit Arts Center and the Province of East-Flanders. 
  • A richely illustrated public book about the history of the Vooruit Festivities Hall came along with the exhibition. It was published by Uitgeverij Hannibal. 
  • Other initiatives including a TV documentary, city walking tours, children’s camps, workshops and so on.

For the full program of activitites, take a look at the website www.vooruit100.be

Organization

This project was a joint initiative between the Institute for Public History (IPG) the department of Art, Music and Theater studies, the Architecture department and the Electronics and Information systems department of Ghent University in cooperation with the Vooruit Arts Center, the STAM, the Interdisciplinary Institute for Broadband Technology and the Amsab-Institute for Social History. The supervisor of the project was Bruno De Wever. Liesbet Nys was the full time scientific assistant who had been hired to realize the project. 
Duration: 2008-2013. 

Contact

Fien.danniau@ugent.be