The idea for an institute for contemporary art on Curaçao had been existing for a long time in the minds of visual artists David Bade and Tirzo Martha, but in 2006 the time was there to make that step. Together with art historian Nancy Hoffmann they gave a firm base to the Instituto Buena Bista, that was built on three pillars that give the institute its strength; the development of young talent through an orientation course, a thorough program of artist in residencies and a network in the field of education and research. Nancy Hoffmann is the director, Martha and Bade support the iBB from their own professional framework and offer the students an intensive year of learning experiences and complete dedication…

Before 2006 Martha, Bade and Hoffmann worked together, also with art historian Jennifer Smit from Curaçao, in the ArtSwa foundation. By initiating projects within the community and using the tools of art they wanted to give bases to current topics in society. Not intending to make art but to make people aware of the strength of imagination and their own fantasy and how one can use that to represent ideas in an image or a sculpture.

The ArteSwa projects made clear how many talents there were on Curaçao and how hard it was for them to find their way to a professional career in the arts or applied arts field. With the IBB we offer them a framework that makes this possible and since then we already accompanied three levies of young talents to art schools or applied art schools in the Netherlands and the Caribbean region.