Val Saint-Lambert & Design (1958–2000) — Design Museum Brussels

The Val Saint-Lambert crystal works, founded at Seraing in 1826, is two hundred years old this year, and the Design Museum Brussels has taken the half of the story that usually gets left out. Not the Art Nouveau vases and not the Art Deco services, but what the company did after 1958 — the year Brussels hosted the World’s Fair and Belgian industry had to decide what modern looked like.

Val Saint-Lambert & Design follows the crystal works from Expo 58 to the early 2000s, through the Crystal Studio it set up to bring outside designers into a factory that had been making its own shapes for over a century. The exhibition is curated by Catherine Thomas and Anne Vanlatum, and was developed with the Musée du Verre in Charleroi, whose glass collection supplies much of the material.

It is one of four exhibitions marking the bicentenary. The others are at the Musée du Val Saint-Lambert in Seraing (Cristal Vivant), the Grand Curtius in Liège (Japonisme et Art nouveau) and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Charleroi (Art Déco et modernisme au Val Saint-Lambert, 1925–1939). Taken together they cover the full two centuries, one period at a time.

Practical details

• When: 24 April – 25 October 2026
• Where: Design Museum Brussels, Place de la Belgique 20, 1020 Brussels, Belgium
• Opening hours: daily, 11am–7pm
• Curators: Catherine Thomas and Anne Vanlatum
• Tickets and info: on the museum’s own site

Full details are on the Design Museum Brussels website. Cultural Heritage Online lists this exhibition for readers planning a visit to Brussels; admission is handled directly by the museum.