The cultural centre, Meatpack, is located in a former foam factory in the dynamic Den Dam neighbourhood of Antwerp, Belgium. This area used to be a meatpacking district, but nowadays is home to working-class immigrant families and young professionals.

The centre was opened in September 2017 by the Association Ziggurat, which aims to revive the neighbourhood by combining creative practices with a vibrant nightlife culture. The huge space within the old factory is used for workshops, trainings on stage design and classes in a stage production. They have also built a contemporary art gallery and 360-virtual recording DJ studios, and a club that is intertwined with containers used as artist studios. The centre aims to bring together people from different social and cultural backgrounds to inspire their co-creation processes and to inspire cultural exchange between the groups and individuals.

What makes the organisation unique?

Meatpack is all about removing the tags, tearing down the walls and breaking new ground.  Art, food, fashion, crafts, music and nightlife come together in a concrete labyrinth that is the size of a football field. The different halls of the former factory structure have been compartmentalised into separate areas which, despite having their own respective creative function and design, coexist and communicate harmoniously via a central and massive entrance hall.