Art Centre Yellow Art

The Yellow Art Centre was set up by OPZ Geel (Public Centre for Psychiatric Care) to offer artistically gifted people with psychiatric problems a suitable context to work on their art. The Art Centre focuses on art and not on therapy. ( “Geel” is the name of a city in Belgium, but also the name of a colour: translated in English: the colour “yellow”.)

The OPZ Geel is best known for its 700 year old psychiatric foster care programme. The approach emphasizes the residual abilities of the patient: s/he is accepted with his/her disabilities. Not only are the patients a familiar sight in town, they are also embraced by the local population.

The Yellow Art Centre is built on the same philosophy as the psychiatric foster care programme: the philosophy of rehabilitation. The centreoffers a safe haven for those with atalent and passion for art, who, in spite of their psychological vulnerability, are in need of a place where their talent can be nurtured and developed.

Characteristic for its approach is the collaboration with established artists. Experience demonstratesthat this collaboration is stimulating for both parties. By bypassing the dichotomy ill / healthy, the centre surmounts the distinction between pathological and normal art. Every time the centre displays its art, the general public realises that the way people with a psychiatric problem express themselves is not all that different. The exhibitions generate wider understanding and counter stigmatisation.

The Yellow Art Centre is situated in a house, outside psychiatry, outside the patient-caregiver relationship and thus represents a kind of freedom. Whereas art has conquered its place in society already, psychiatry has not; this centre will be a motor for change, to make integration really happen.