Descripción de la organización:

VZW De Vergunning was created in 2013 as an accidental collaboration of different initiatives that moved into an old furniture factory together. A community café (Café La Lys), a bicycle kitchen/repair shop (de Fietskeuken), a group of artists (Zwart Wild) and many more local initiatives found a place there. For three years, we worked together to create vibrant places. Also we were constantly moving and being the playball of project-developers. So we searched for a more permanent, sustainable location in the same neighbourhood. We are active in ‘de brugse poort’ - a neighbourhood situated in the 19th century industrial belt around the city centre of Ghent. The community is known for its density and superdiversity.

A new location was found and since 2016 we now develop our activities in ‘Zaal de Meibloem’, a site built 100 years ago by the city’s socialist cooperative. Over the years the place functioned as a community building, theatre, cinema, sports-club, youth-club, bar, .. but got neglected over the last 30 years. VZW De Vergunning negotiated a ground lease for 35 years to re-develop the site and the project ‘De Koer’ was born. Through a collective (re)development process we are reconstructing the place to be, and become, a vibrant place for social and artistic creation and encounter in de Brugse Poort. We choose to take a slow and deliberate approach and through a process of imagining, (re)designing and reconstructing with a diverse group of people we are constantly transforming the place.

As De Koer we run a collective kitchen, a café, a hall (for multiple use like concerts, sports, workshops, theatre, ...), a soap garden, a chicken run, a cinema, a workshop/atelier, an office and meeting room.

Every season De Koer organises a group of artists in residence. In nov 17 the second group of artists, with diverse practices and backgrounds, were selected after a wide open call. During 10 months (from nov to sept) they develop their practice on the site. The work connects with the layered meaning of the site, the neighbourhood, the community, the city and it’s visitors. In return reflection and dialogue about the place is developed, the place is (mis)used, and different views for the future are developed. The dynamic produced by the residents’ practices on the site are contagious and challenge to participate. De Koer Residents first edition from Nov 16 to Sept 17 and the second edition from Nov 17 to Sept 18.

In 2016, 2017 and 2018 De Koer focuses on essential construction work for the safety of the building and spontaneous interventions of construction. We organise workdays, weekends and weeks (with local volunteers and collaborations with youth-volunteer organisations in Belgium like VIA vzw and Bouworde). In 2018, we start a ‘building collective’ to make a design for the first phase of the reconstruction that will start in June 19. Two intensive weeks of designing in group are planned in 2018.

Organisational development gets an important role in the development of the place, working towards a common ground we offer a transparent structure for participation, non-formal learning and decision making.

Currently we are four people working part-time for VZW De Vergunning - an artistic, participation, financial and (re)development coördinators.
The shared use of the building is tested and evaluated through the regular activities of partners in the building (box 2 times a week, the music school 2 times a week, a dancing-afternoon once a month). Every month the different people involved on De Koer meet in the ‘koervolk’ meeting (attendance average of around 40 people). These meetings are organised in ‘work groups’.

Monthly there’s a meeting with the Board of Directors - six people from different backgrounds are operational ‘back-ups’ for both the content, organisational and the financial challenges and opportunities.

Twice a year we widely and actively announce and invite partners/ neighbours/ volunteers/ beneficiaries for the general meeting to make the koer a collective ground.

On the side of the part of the building used for the activities of de Koer there is a bio food coöperative shop, an office rented to another a non profit organiz (VOEM) and two apartments.