Museum Dr. Guislain

Name

Museum Dr. Guislain

Legal name

Museum Dr. Guislain

Website

https://museumdrguislain.be

Company type

Private

Founded year

1986

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Museum and Cultural Heritage Services

NAICS

Museums (71211), Museums (712110), Historical Sites (712120), Libraries and Archives (51921)

akta.pro primary industry

History Museums (THAJADAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Art Museums (THAJADAA), Museum & Landmark Guided Tours (Skip-the-line/Docent-led) (THAJAAAC), Cultural Heritage Institutions (Archives, Historic Houses, Monuments Foundations) (THAJADAI)

Keywords

• Psychiatric history museum
• Outsider art exhibitions
• Cultural heritage services
• Museum venue rental
• Museum educational tours

Headquarters

HQ city

Ghent

HQ country

Belgium

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Admission and ticket sales: The museum generates revenue from individual and group admission tickets. One ticket grants access to all exhibitions. Admission fees were updated from 1 July 2026 (standard ticket €14, student €12, Uitpas kansentarief €2.80, youth under 26 €3, youth under 19 €1, children under 13 free).
2. Guided tours and educational services: Revenue from guided group tours, foreign-language guides, school presentations on contemporary psychiatry, and interactive educational tours for secondary schools. Prices range from €45 to €75 per group.
3. Location rental: The museum rents its spaces for lectures, doctoral defenses, theater performances, staff parties, team outings, receptions, and evening events. Custom formulas are developed for each client.
4. Museum café (Het Badhuis) and catering: Café Het Badhuis operates in the former bathhouse of the psychiatric hospital. Alternating snacks are prepared by youth from the Pardon Servies project. The café and the garden contribute to visitor revenue.
5. Membership (Friends of the Museum): Annual membership tiers: Vriend (€25/€15 for students), Steunende Vriend (€250), Gezin/Family (€50). Benefits include free admission, newsletters, invitations, and shop discounts.
6. Donations and corporate sponsorship: The museum is a private, independent vzw subsidized by the government, but must generate 45% of its operating funds from own revenue and support from companies and individuals. Donations are tax-deductible from €40. Corporate sponsorship via tax-deductible gifts or barter agreements.
7. Publications and catalog sales: Sale of museum publications and catalogs such as 'Monique Gies – Binnenzichten' (€19.90) and 'De kunst van verbinding' (€16).

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Museum Dr. Guislain is a non-profit museum in Ghent, Belgium that exhibits and preserves the history of psychiatry and outsider/art brut art, housed in the historic 1857 buildings of the former Hospice Guislain. Its core offerings include permanent and rotating exhibitions, guided group and school tours, educational programs, an on-site café (Het Badhuis) with a community garden, venue rental for corporate and private events, annual memberships (Friends of the Museum), and sale of publications and catalogs. The museum also runs the Mini-Guislain accessibility toolkit and signature events such as Psycho Jazz and the International Conference on Culture & Mental Health.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Museum admissions and exhibitions

Quantifiable outcome

• 45% of operating funds self-generated through admissions, events, memberships, and sponsorships
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

14 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Iedereen LeestcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 14 November 2025Iedereen Leest partnered with Museum Dr. Guislain, TOON, and 'Ge durft!' (Hogeschool VIVES) for the third edition of the International Conference on Culture & Mental Health, taking place on 26–27 November 2026 in Ghent. The conference focuses on youth and explores how culture and art can strengthen the mental health and resilience of young people.
• 'Ge durft!' (Hogeschool VIVES)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 14 November 2025'Ge durft!' from Hogeschool VIVES co-organized the third edition of the International Conference on Culture & Mental Health (with Iedereen Leest, TOON, and Museum Dr. Guislain) on 26–27 November 2026, focused on youth mental health and resilience.
• KADOC-KU Leuven (now TOON)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Museum Dr. Guislain and KADOC-KU Leuven combined their expertise as museum and archive to map the collections of Care & Welfare in Flanders and Brussels and to develop a working program around it. Since early 2024, this collaboration operates within the new organization TOON — a national heritage service provider with a daily board, a three-person team, and a member committee as advisory board.
• VZW Stappen, VZW Lionshulp, VZW aPartcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPardon Servies is a joint project of VZW Stappen, VZW Lionshulp, and VZW aPart, subsidized by Stad Gent under the Arbeidspact. It gives youth who have difficulty connecting to the labor market the opportunity to develop hospitality skills by running Museumcafé Het Badhuis. The youth prepare alternating snacks Wednesday to Friday, and the museum provides the space and support.
• Stad Gent (City of Ghent)minorGTM or Marketing PartnerStad Gent subsidizes the Pardon Servies project and supports the Guislain community garden through a neighborhood budget (wijkbudget). The city also contributes to the museum's community outreach and accessibility initiatives.
• Onderwijscentrum GentminorGTM or Marketing PartnerOnderwijscentrum Gent initiates Kucunest — a project in which a class from a Ghent primary school 'takes over' the museum for a full school year, selecting artworks, handling art, doing audience outreach, and creating their own exhibition under museum team guidance.
• Thomas More (Erasmus+ MindTour project)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerStudents of Space and Service Design at Thomas More participated in the Erasmus+ MindTour project (Mindful Tourism Services for Mentally Disordered People), developing prototypes to make tourist organizations (focused on museums) more accessible for people with intellectual disabilities or psychological vulnerabilities.
• Yellow Art / Openbaar Psychiatrisch Zorgcentrum GeelminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerYellow Art, an artistic studio for people with psychological vulnerabilities attached to the Openbaar Psychiatrisch Zorgcentrum Geel, collaborated on the 'Ikigai' exhibition, bringing Japanese and Belgian artists together through a mail art project.
• Aiseikai (Japan)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAiseikai is a Japanese welfare organization that advocates for artists with disabilities. For the 'Ikigai' exhibition, they partnered with Yellow Art and Museum Dr. Guislain, bringing the largest portion of Japanese outsider art to European soil for the first time.
• Enchanté vzwminorGTM or Marketing PartnerEnchanté vzw is listed as a supporting partner of the museum, visible on the website footer.
• MuseumPASSmuséesminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorThe museum accepts MuseumPASSmusées, allowing pass holders free unlimited access, expanding the museum's reach to a wider audience of culture enthusiasts across Belgium.
• Lucinda RacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLucinda Ra is a multidisciplinary artist collective conducting a multi-year research project on the Guislain site, creating theater, music, visual art, and texts. They organize Club MiRAnda (biweekly open atelier) and co-organize the annual Psycho Jazz festival with the museum.
• vzw Wit.hminorStrategic or Co-development Partnervzw Wit.h initiated the Art Expedition 'De Windstoot' (about the power of limitation), creating new work with international artists and presenting the results in a museum context in relation to the museum's own collection.
• Fioretti / Psychiatrisch Centrum GuislainminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerThrough the ErfGoedVoelen project, young people from Fioretti (child and youth psychiatric department of Psychiatrisch Centrum Guislain) had their own space on the attic of Museum Dr. Guislain, where they met weekly with facilitators, museum staff, and an artist.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Museum of Everything: London-based itinerant museum dedicated exclusively to outsider, self-taught, and under-represented art. Overlapping mission with Guislain's outsider art program, though operating without a permanent venue.

Direct peers

• Collection de l'Art Brut: Swiss museum in Lausanne housing one of the world's leading collections of Art Brut/outsider art. Closely aligned in subject matter with Dr. Guislain's outsider art collection and the broader art-brut curatorial tradition.
• Musée de la Création Franche: French museum in Bègles (Bordeaux) dedicated to art brut, outsider art, and self-taught contemporary artists. Comparable in mission and curatorial focus with Museum Dr. Guislain's outsider art collection.
• LaM - Lille Métropole Musée d'art moderne, d'art contemporain et d'art brut: French museum in Villeneuve-d'Ascq that holds the major Collection d'Art Brut d'Aracine — one of Europe's largest outsider art holdings. Comparable overlap with Museum Dr. Guislain in outsider art focus, though embedded within a broader modern art institution.
• Museum van de Geest (Het Dolhuys): Dutch museum in Haarlem (formerly Het Dolhuys) exploring the history of psychiatry and mental health through art and personal stories. Directly comparable in psychiatric-heritage mission and outsider-art programming.
• Museum Gugging: Austrian museum founded at the Gugging psychiatric hospital near Vienna, dedicated to Art Brut/outsider art created by artists with mental health challenges. Explicitly named partner of Museum Dr. Guislain, with directly overlapping mission, audience, and curatorial approach.
• Bethlem Museum of the Mind: UK museum at the historic Bethlem Royal Hospital in London dedicated to the history of mental healthcare and art made by those who experienced it. Directly comparable as a psychiatry-history and patient-art museum housed in a historic psychiatric institution.
• Prinzhorn Collection: Heidelberg University collection of art by patients of psychiatric institutions, founded 1919. Strong overlap with Museum Dr. Guislain in mission, historic-collection focus, and the intersection of psychiatry and outsider art.
• Museum im Lagerhaus: Swiss foundation and museum in St. Gallen dedicated to Art Brut, operating as both museum and resource center. Comparable in curatorial focus on outsider art and similar scale as a specialized European collection.

Broad incumbents

• SMAK (Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst): Major contemporary art museum in Ghent operating in the same city as Museum Dr. Guislain. Broader contemporary art focus rather than outsider/psychiatry specialization, but competes for the same local visitor and event-rental pool.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/museumdrguislain
• Xx.com/guislainmuseum
• Facebookfacebook.com/museumdrguislain
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/museumdrguislain

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Museum Dr. Guislain