ACADÉMIE ROYALE DES BEAUXARTS/KONINKLIJKE AKADEMIE VOOR SCHONE KUNSTEN

   The Académie royale des Beaux-Arts was founded on 30 September 1711 when the city government made available to the deans of the various arts guilds— painters, weavers, sculptors, and others — a room at the Hôtel de Ville in which to offer lessons. Instruction began on 16 October. The academy was plagued in early years by financial shortfalls, and the city government granted a subsidy. As its prominence rose, additional monies were forthcoming from the provincial government and well-to-do families in Brussels, who competed in donating generous gifts. Closed after the Battle of Fleurus (26 June 1794), it did not reopen until 10 October 1806. After 1876, it operated out of the building that served formerly as the convent of the Bogards on rue du Midi. Today the academy is housed in the Palais des Académies.