History
Meemoo, the Flemish Institute for Archives, was born in 2020. The new name signifies a new vision and mission for us, with a new style and website, but above all it represents a unified organisation striving for a common goal: to support cultural, media and government organisations in their digital archive operations, working together to expand the use of digital archive content.
The decision to merge three separate entities – VIAA, PACKED and Lukas – into a single organisation was taken by the Flemish Government and Minister for Culture in September 2018. Our integration became a reality from an administrative point of view on 1 January 2019, and was decreed by law later that same year on 20 May.
On 1 January 2024, the Flemish Art Collection’s digitisation operations were integrated into meemoo – as decided by Flemish Minister for Culture, Jan Jambon, as part of the Digital Transformation programme.
The four organisations have a longer collaborative history, though, and previously worked closely together as separate organisations. You can read a brief summary below.
VIAA
VIAA, which stands for Vlaams Instituut voor (Audiovisuele) Archivering [Flemish Institute for (Audiovisual) Archiving], was founded by the Flemish Government in 2012 as a project organisation with temporary funding provided by iMinds (now: imec). It grew into a fully-fledged independent non-profit organisation, financed by the Flemish Government, in 2016. The service provider focussed on digitising, archiving and unlocking image and audio content for over 150 partners.
PACKED
PACKED vzw was founded in 2005 as a partner organisation by Argos Centre for Art and Media, the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA), the Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art in Ghent (S.M.A.K.) and Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens (MDD). It originally focussed on the archiving and conservation of audiovisual arts, but in order to expand its support base, PACKED vzw quickly started to also concentrate on the challenges facing digital cultural heritage in general. Recognised as the national expertise centre for digital cultural heritage since 1 January 2011, PACKED further expanded its operations into the arts sector in 2013.
Lukas
The Reproduction Fund was set up in 2003 with the objective of building a centralised image database of high-quality digital reproductions of Flemish works of art and cultural heritage. The organisation, which was later renamed Lukas, operated as a service provider for digitising works of art from Flemish collections and making them accessible to a broad international audience.
Flemish Art Collection
At the end of 2006, the KMSKA Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, MSK Gent (Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent) and Groeningemuseum (Musea Brugge) decided to collaborate closely and join forces as the Flemish Art Collection (VKC). Mu.ZEE and M Leuven also became members of the organisation later on. The VKC gradually shifted its focus towards initiatives to provide digital access to collections, having a shared technical infrastructure, and support for digital museum processes. The online collection platform, which brings together the collections from the VKC and partner museums, continues to be a valuable accessible resource today.