Les Halles de Schaerbeek

Les Halles de Schaerbeek

Les Halles are a multidisciplinary arts center based in Schaerbeek, an area of Brussels, Belgium. They celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2024. Formerly a food market, Les Halles have a history of presenting a wild range of arts and social projects, mainly in the disciplines of danse, performance, circus and music, in their big hall which has a capacity of around 500 seated audience and more than 2000 standing audience. Two smaller venues with capacities between 100 and 350 audience complete their infrastructure.

Les Halles' project focuses on three main objectives:

- To provide the best possible support for artists and offer a diverse and curious artistic programme
- To be active in Schaerbeek and the Brussels-Capital Region and with the communities in Les Halles's district
- Remain attentive and active on today's major social issues (climate, migration, gender, social justice, among others).

We are choosing to look in the rear-view mirror at Les Halles' past. Les Halles de Schaerbeek were built around a vision of cultural democracy. This has helped to create the identity of Les Halles for over 50 years. By cultural democracy we mean valuing all cultures, in all their diversity. Cultural democracy rejects the superiority of one form of culture over another, since all have value. In this sense, the notion of culture covers artistic creation as well as traditions and customs, popular creativity and local practices.

We are convinced that Les Halles have the potential to be both open to diverse local communities and an artistically demanding international arts centre. In this sense, and given its history, it is a unique house in the local, national and international landscape.

As of today, we are making three major commitments:
- To make Les Halles an even more interdisciplinary venue. We're introducing three main disciplines: dance/performance, circus and music. At the same time, we're open to disciplines that still have too little space in cultural institutions, such as stand-up comedy. Les Halles specialise in producing interdisciplinary works.
- Developing a shared programme with a large number of partners, from large cultural institutions to local grassroots independant organisation.
- Making the venues more accessible: to artists and spectators with different physical and mental abilities, to culturally diverse communities of participants from the neighbourhood and beyond, to arts scenes from all over. 

What makes the organisation unique?

Les Halles are located in a unique building, a former market originally built in the middle of the 19th century. This particular main venue allows Les Halles to produce and present, among others, large scale works, many of them inviting audiences to unique experiences. Les Halles have got a history of presenting international artists in Brussels."