Every year on the first day of January, a huge amount of creative works enter the public domain. These works, ranging from images and texts to music and research, become freely available for everyone to use, share, and build upon. They are a essential base for open knowledge, creativity, and cultural heritage.
To celebrate this moment, Public Domain Day 2026 will take place on 15 January 2026 at KBR (the Royal Library of Belgium) in Brussels. The event brings together organisations, professionals, and practitioners who work with public domain collections and are committed to making knowledge as open and reusable as possible.
A Platform for Knowledge Sharing and Inspiration
Public Domain Day offers a space for organisations to share experiences, best practices, and concrete examples of how public domain material can be opened up, reused, and brought back to life. The programme combines Belgian, European, and international perspectives, creating a rich exchange between policy, practice, and creativity.
The event is open to collection managers, researchers, policy makers, heritage professionals, and anyone working with public domain material who wants to stay up to date with the latest developments and gain fresh inspiration.
What to Expect
The day starts with a plenary morning session, featuring a keynote by Bartolomeo Meletti (CREATe) alongside international updates from Creative Commons, Europeana and Internet Archive Europe. These contributions set the scene by addressing policy developments, open heritage advocacy and the evolving infrastructure supporting the public domain.
Late morning, participants can choose between two parallel tracks:
- The Belgian track (mainly in Dutch) focuses on recent developments in and around the public domain in Belgium. Speakers from heritage institutions, universities, creative organisations and Wikimedia Belgium explore digitisation, open data, creative reuse and community-driven initiatives. The session concludes with the Wiki Loves Heritage Belgium award ceremony.
- The European track (in English) takes a broader view on copyright and the public domain in Europe. Short talks and a panel discussion examine practical copyright solutions, new tools such as CommonsDB, and how academic research can inform policy and professional practice.
After lunch, the programme continues with English-language presentations and workshops centred on real-world use cases. Speakers share hands-on experiences with creative reuse of public domain material — from non-linear storytelling with Tapestries, to crowdsourcing through pattern-a-thons, remixing heritage data, and working with public domain photography and video.
In the afternoon, participants can also opt for interactive workshops, including a deep dive into CommonsDB and a practical, hands-on Tapestries workshop. The day wraps up with a networking reception, offering space to exchange ideas and connect with peers and speakers from across Europe.
Practical Information
- 📍 Location: KBR, Kunstberg 28, 1000 Brussels
(Belgian track in person; European sessions also available online) - 🕘 Time: 9:30 – 18:00
- 💻 Workshops: Please bring your own laptop
- 📝 Registration required: Free participation, registration deadline 7 January
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