Barbara Struys in conversation: a member of LOV’s ‘dream team’

How did you become a member of LOV2030’s Dream Team?

‘In 2022, the City of Leuven decided that, together with the East Brabant region, it wanted to put itself forward as a candidate to become European Capital of Culture in 2030. To shape this bid, an open call was launched for a sounding board group. There were no restrictions on who could make a nomination. They were looking for people who could bring others together and who had a fresh perspective on culture. Around 280 people cast their votes, resulting in 80 nominees, from whom around thirty people were eventually selected. I received a phone call out of the blue, asking if I would like to join the Dream Team. As a Leuven resident, I was delighted.’

What is the Dream Team’s role?

‘As the name suggests, we were invited to help envision what Leuven & Beyond could mean as a European Capital of Culture. We held many discussions, facilitated sessions during the first LOV Summit – open to all interested parties – established lab projects and explored possible avenues in preparation for the bid book. Now that Leuven and the region have been selected, we remain active as a sounding board group, but also as “guardians” of the “radically new connections”, which are the key focus of LOV2030. We want to do things completely differently by 2030. Or, as Stijn Devillé, Lore Baeyens and Sarah Bekambo – the LOV2030 directors during the bid book phase – put it: if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got. The Dream Team will help ensure that we don’t simply follow the beaten track and that we put the spirit of the bid book into practice.’

What connections do you hope to forge at M as part of LOV2030?

‘M’s programme for LOV2030 has not yet been finalised, but I hope that the ambition to forge these radically new connections will spur the museum on to reach out even more to diverse partners in the city and the region. To target groups we might not even be thinking of at the moment. And I believe it’s vital that we establish these collaborations on a reciprocal basis; that we seek common ground together. People haven’t (yet) found their way to M – or to culture in general – for all sorts of reasons. Often, the barriers are social and emotional. People think: “that’s not for me”, or: “you need to have studied it”. How do we help people feel what art can mean for them personally and for our future? As a museum, we need to give this even more thought.’

‘To forge these radically new connections, we will therefore need, above all, to listen carefully to those we are not yet reaching. This really is the essence of LOV2030: we have to forge these connections and not shy away from the difficult conversations that go with them. Naturally, the aim is also to embed these partnerships sustainably for the future.’

As a member of the Dream Team, have you forged a ‘radically new connection’ yourself?

‘Absolutely. As a member of the Dream Team, I’ve met people whose paths I might never otherwise have crossed. I call these “micro-encounters”: little chats about how you view the world or your outlook on life. That’s how I got to know Ela Grabiec, headteacher of the Polish school in Leuven. We’re the same age, but we have completely different backgrounds and perspectives on the world. It is precisely those differences that I find enriching. For me, that is where the real power lies in the radically new connections that LOV2030 champions.’