Portrait of two M-bassadors

She has only just started whereas he has been going for years - he even wears a face mask with the M logo. But Carine Van den Panhuyzen (57) and Mark Pessers (65) are both equally passionate M-bassadors. Even though many activities over the past 18 months had to be done online.

Mark: "I don't know exactly how long I've been an M-bassador. I got it as a gift for Christmas once and have faithfully renewed it every year since. I like the offer, I would like to support M, and the amount is so low that you hardly notice it, especially if you combine it with the Museum Pass. I did not pay much more for it than for this mouth mask."

Carine: "I've always loved art, and on city trips I like to visit museums - the Prado, the Louvre.... - but to my shame, I'd never been to M. Then Covid kept me home, even though I'm very social. That's why I decided to become an M-bassador last year - Covid was the trigger!"

Mark: "Sometimes I just pop in, that's a big advantage of being an M-bassador. I also find the tours with an artist or curator interesting. The annual Friends Day, which I always make sure to attend. Then, of course, the two outings a year. The visit to the glassworks of Theys & Miseur is something I remember well: people may know their gallery on the De Somer square, but they also have a studio in Sint-Pieters-Rode which we visited. Wonderful to see how that glass art comes into being before your eyes."

Carine: "I was able to go on a day trip once, to an exhibition by Ensor and Spilliaert in Ostend. I hardly knew anyone in the group, but everyone was very friendly - it's not elitist or anything at all."

"Just recently, we visited Park Abbey with the M-bassadors. It has been beautifully renovated - the restored 17th century-stained glass windows alone are worth a visit. I'm not someone who walks around with my ears to the ground and listens obediently to the explanation of every work, I prefer to discover an exhibition at my own pace, but here we were given explanations by the curator. He pointed out things we wouldn't have noticed on our own - the stately outdoor staircase, for example, which even the King of France envied."

Amazing

Carine: "I've also participated in a few online activities, and I thought the offerings were well thought out. Professionally, I'm involved a lot in project management, and I was impressed by how much planning is involved in such a museum - amazing! You can also see that the employees of M are passionate about what they do. The M-bassadors are like-minded souls too: people with a shared interest, not whiners."

Mark: "In the online offerings, the lecture series on Vincent Geyskens stood out for me. The past few months M has been showing an exhibition about his work, and in three online lectures we were able to see how it came about: how a museum decides which artist to dedicate to an exhibition, how to involve the public, how the exhibition is constructed... At the end we got a preview - that was live at the museum though."

Carine: "The lecture on construction has stayed with me. That's a lot more than just hanging works on the wall: M has its own studio where they make the exhibition furniture according to the artist's wishes. Too bad we couldn't see that live."

"Personally, I have more of an affinity for old masters, but those lectures introduced me to art I hadn't had much interest in before. All sorts of questions immediately come to mind: how do you come up with the idea of making something like this, what goes on in the mind of such an artist? That's what appeals to me at M: that you learn something. You don't see things there that you might as well go see somewhere else."

International attention

Mark: "I also visit museums abroad, and I dare say that M really stands out at times. I don't like everything, but some exhibitions rightly get international attention - think 'Borman and Sons'."

Carine: "I really liked 'Rodin, Meunier & Minne'. If only to see 'The Thinker' again, in my own city! It was mainly the combination of old and more modern art that I liked. Many museums are compartmentalized: either old art or contemporary. That way you don't get to know new things as a visitor. "M is a museum that dares to look over the wall"

The M-bassador programme is currently being revised. The current programme will continue until June 2026. However, it is not possible to apply for new membership at this time.

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