Challenged Art Expo 2015 in Japan hetWerkvan (Madeby) www.hetwerkvan.nl Discipline: art movement Outsider Art About hetWerkvan (Madeby) hetWerkvan is a foundation that aims to promote the art movement Outsider Art. Outsider Art is a contemporary art movement, the artists create because of a personal need and are unique creators. In the case of hetWerkvan we work with and for artists with a disability. We intend to offer these amazing artists and their individual unique artworks a platform. A platform that gives them the opportunity for emancipation and to integrate in society. Day care programs for disabled adults can be more meaningful this way. There are many workshops for artists with a disability. Their professional supervisors support the artists in the creative process of making an artwork. The organisation hetWerkvan, sells art from these workshops. Budgets in healthcare are cut and face limitations, therefor the ateliers are increasingly in need of new funding. The artists supervisor should primarily focus on guidance of the creative process and the education of the artist. However because of their budget responsibility, they have to become more and more commercial. And commerce is not their expertise! The objective of hetWerkvan is to take care of these commercial activities and we intend to support these ateliers and their supervisors in this specific commercial area with expertise and knowledge. hetWerkvan is a foundation with a clear corporate social responsibility (CSR) goal. We buy the art products directly from the workshops and we pay a fair price. Our main interest is to ensure these ateliers to survive and to continue to be a place of growth for their artists. This way they can continue to provide for a great creative output and artworks of all sorts. Besides re-selling these artworks, we also offer, on request, support with business-requests made upon these workshops. We happily offer our expertise in making custom-made tenders and give support from application to delivery. For example: Art by Assignment, Painting/drawing on site, Business exhibition, the Driving Gallery on your own event and there is the opportunity to become a Partner or a Friend. We are always open to new suggestions how we can promote the art and artists and help in their development and education. Challenged Art Expo 2015 in Japan Artists and Workplaces Workplace in Rotterdam, the Netherlands Atelier Herenplaats Rotterdam Five pillars The ngo Herenplaats is a whirlwind of activities centred on visual arts, comprising of the studios, the gallery, exhibitions in the Netherlands and abroad, the art library and (educational) art projects. Studios Herenplaats has studio space for artists with an intellectual disability and provides support with the financial and commercial aspects of the profession. Some of the artists have been with Herenplaats since it founding in 1991. Familiar names are: Hein Dingemans (exhibition in museum Boijmans van Beuningen, 2001), Jaco Kranendonk (permanent exhibition in museum Charlotte Zander in Germany and permanent collection Stadshof), Laan Irodjojo (wall painting commissioned by CBK Rotterdam) and Paulus de Groot (permanent collection of M.A.D museum in Luik and outsider Art Museum, Baltimore U.S.A.). The artists often operate outside their studio, not only in exhibitions, but also in lectures, presentations and workshops. Furthermore they work on commissions by both private and corporate clients. Gallery Our gallery, reopened in January 2006 after major refurbishment work, is situated in the cultural heart of Rotterdam. Here we have been presenting for longer than ten years accessible art to the general public, specialising in Outsider Art. Each exhibition combines one or more artists of the Herenplaats with contemporary artists from the Netherlands and other countries. We also regularly publish books, catalogues and articles about Outsider Art and related subjects. Projects Herenplaats organises and participates in various projects. From lectures and symposiums to educational programs and workshops. Many of these projects are in collaboration with other organisations from Rotterdam, the rest of the country or abroad. Art library Herenplaats has its own art library with more than hundred private and corporate members. Hundreds of paintings and drawings of Herenplaats artists thus find their way to homes and offices in the Rijnmond area. The main goal is to let the artwork reach as many homes and offices as possible. The modest memberships fees help insure that the art is accessible to a wide public. Art academy Persons with an intellectual disability are not admitted to the regular art academies. Herenplaats has therefore developed an adapted art training for these persons. Supervising the lesson program are professional artists and art teachers. The length and tempo of the training are is set in accordance to each student’s abilities. After a successful training one can join the artists collective of the Herenplaats. Challenged Art Expo 2015 in Japan Significance During its first fifteen years Herenplaats has developed from a small-scale studio for six artists to an art centre with various studios and art projects and with many exhibitions, both in its own gallery and in other locations in the Netherlands and abroad. Podium for Outsider Art Herenplaats is a podium for Outsider Art, the only one in Rotterdam. Outsider Art attracts Internationally growing attention. It was discovered in the beginning of the 20th century, when the work of a few talented psychiatric patients drew the attention of the medical staff. Today it includes a wide variety of artists operating mainly on the edge of society. Known Outsiders are Adolf Wollfli (Switzerland), Facteur Ferdinand Cheval (France), Ned Chand (India) and Willem van Genk (Netherlands). Accessibility Outsider Art is not an art school, nor did it develop out of the main art scene. Each Outsider artist operates individually and instinctively, creating very original and candid work. The artworks are therefore very recognisable and accessible and the Herenplaats Gallery attracts indeed a very wide public. In 2001 it was chosen by the Dutch guide to free admittance events as the best gallery in the Netherlands. International significance The interest in Outsider Art has grown immensely in the last years. In many countries in Europe dedicated museums have been established and especially in the United States the market is flourishing. Herenplaats has established a respected name in the international scene and has many connections, particularly abroad. One of these contacts is with the former museum for Outsider Art de Stadshof in Zwolle. In 2001 an attempt has been made to bring this important collection, which originated in Rotterdam, back to the city. This attempt was unfortunately not successful. The collection moved to Gent in Belgium, leaving the Netherlands with no museum collection of Outsider Art. Herenplaats attempt to bring in the exhibitions of its gallery Outsider Art back to the Netherlands and to Rotterdam. Integration The mainstream art scene certainly has not ignored Outsider Art. Since its discovery hundred years ago Outside Art has been a source of inspiration to many artists, amongst others Surrealists, Dadaists and Cobra-artists. Many contemporary artists are also attracted to Outsider Art, artists such as Paul van der Eerden of Rotterdam. Chris Dercon, the former director of museum Boijmans van Beuningen, expressed the opinion that Outsider Art and mainstream Art are growing closer to each other and interact more often. During our symposium in 2001 he asked: ‘Have de latest developments in the art world not made of Galerie Herenplaats and Museum Boijmans van Beuningen natural allies? Challenged Art Expo 2015 in Japan Artists at Atelier Herenplaats Jeroen Pomp (1985) Just inside my head by: Frits Gronert I feel a hand on my shoulder and Jeroen asks: "Do you want to come and take a look at my work? . I answer that I'll come after tea. Clear agreements are important for Jeroen, who’s autistic, they offer him structure. His drawings, put on paper with a coloured pencil, are distinguished by a great diversity of subjects. Jeroen seems to be under the spell of the "horror vacui", the paper is filled from top to bottom and nowhere the white of the paper is visible. Fruit, animals, flowers and plants, cityscapes, roads with cars, rails with trains, page filling, from a birds eye perspective and with encyclopaedic knowledge drawn on paper. "When he draws a fruit-tree with apples, the other sorts of fruit will follow as a next logical continuation to his choice of drawing an apple-tree." The urge for completeness has everything to do with his autism. A while ago I got an enormous map with drawings, made by Piet Dekkers (1904 – 1986), the grandfather of Jeroen’s mother and Jeroen’s great-grandfather. It trucks me, that his subjects and way of drawing resemble those of Jeroens. After his retirement he started drawing, every piece of white paper had to be filled. He did this in a very compulsive way, his wife ran the house. Afterwards a form of autism was recognized as well. His work also shows a lot of diversity in subjects, just like that of Jeroen. Everything is drawn on note size, a lot of and other scrap paper filled to the brim. It is particular to make an acquaintance with his world in coloured pencil. The work of Jeroen happens to rejoice in great interest, many collectors are interested in his work and in New York he has a special agent selling his work over there. After tea I keep my promise to look at his work. He grabs my hand and asks which piece of the drawing I like. I look and see an enormous road winding the paper from top to bottom. From the middle of the paper some kind of garden with different sorts of flowers and plants comes into being.