In 2016, The Crystal Ship dropped anchor in Ostend. Ever since, the arts festival has turned the coastal town into Belgium’s leading open-air gallery, with over a dozen world-renowned street artists setting sail for it every year.

In 2018, US art magazine Juxtapoz described The Crystal Ship as “an art festival that is quickly becoming one of the major annual street art events in the world”. The Crystal Ship paints the town of Ostend red (and blue, and green, and yellow, and quite possibly every other colour you can imagine) by inviting a host of acclaimed street artists to get inspired by its people, landscape, and heritage.

The Mu.ZEE collection contains more than 8000 works and spans different periods and styles, with Belgium as the common thread. It contains works with international allure, from Ostend confidants such as Ensor, Spilliaert and Permeke to pacesetters such as Frits Van den Berghe, Roger Raveel, Raoul De Keyser, Raoul Servais and less well-known but strong artists such as Marthe Wéry, Jacques Verduyn and Walter Swennen.

Belgium has always been a sanctuary for artists who observed each other and the world critically, on a highly visual level. “My talent is to be Belgian,” Marcel Broodthaers once said.

The Royal Galleries were finished in 1905. They are approximately 400 m long and served to protect the middle classes from sun and rain during their walks. They connected the Royal Pavilion with the Wellington racing track.

In the beginning of the thirties, the Thermae Palace was built next to it. These days it is a four-star hotel still breathing the Belle Époque atmosphere.