Citizen panel DE40 formulates recommendations for accessibility and relevance for Design Museum Ghent

The Design Museum in Ghent is currently temporarily closed. During this period, the museum decided to re-evaluate its approach with the help of a citizen panel named DE40. This panel was tasked with considering how the museum can make design more accessible and relevant to a broad audience. Their recommendations were officially presented on Wednesday evening.

In January of this year, Design Museum Ghent invited 3,000 residents from the Ghent population register to participate in a unique citizen panel. From the 192 responses, 40 people were ultimately selected by lottery, representing a representative cross-section of Ghent's demographics. This is how citizen panel DE40 was formed.

The group met over two weekends to reflect on how the museum can be more accessible, relevant, and meaningful for everyone in the city. These discussions yielded a series of concrete recommendations for the future of the museum. On June 25, DE40 officially presented these recommendations to the team of museum staff and to the Alderman for Culture, Astrid De Bruycker (Voor Gent). “This is truly a unique project within the museum landscape,” says De Bruycker proudly. “Working from the bottom up and with a representative sample of society on a shared issue is something I really want to encourage. Culture can be something of and for everyone, but that is only possible if we listen to all visions and ideas. That way, together, we remove as many barriers as possible.”

The participants of DE40 also look back on the project with pride and gratitude. “The world sometimes seems to be on fire, but those two weekends were a bright spot for me. The way we engaged in such constructive dialogue and exchanged ideas has done wonders for my view of humanity,” says panel member Kaj.

Recommendations

The two weekends yielded more than 100 concrete recommendations. To provide structure, these were grouped into 19 themes, each based on a specific need. Examples include ‘clear language for everyone’, ‘current social issues’, ‘participation by Ghent residents’, ‘stillness’, and ‘stepping out’. The results form the core of the first exhibition in the renovated museum, which reopens its doors in 2026. This exhibition explores new ideas for participation as a complement to traditional forms of democracy, fully in line with the initiative of the citizens' panel.