The Instituto Buena Bista, Curacao Center for Contemporary Art, IBB, started in 2006 as an artists initiative with the goal to create a solid platform for art and art education.
As an art institute that offers preparatory training for young talents, the IBB deals with all the aspects of art and art education that make a follow up to an art academy or creative schooling possible. The educational components don’t limit themselves to the students but also cover a broad area of the Curacao and Caribbean art towards the local society. The social engagement and added value of art for the society is also very present in the IBB structure. Being situated on the premises of the Capriles psychiatric clinic is not only a statement of the social engagement of the IBB but also a reflection of the concepts that IBB strives to achieve as well; collaboration, exchange and development. The patients of the clinic participate on a regular basis together with the students in workshops and classes. This, as part of an initiative by the clinic and the IBB to make the clinic more accessible to the public and to create more insight in the psychiatric world.Projects in public spaces have become a regular activity by the IBB. In these projects the students work together with patients of the clinic, students from other schools or people from organisations that participate in these activities. The IBB students get a special role where they have to support and guide the participants and at the same time experience responsibility towards their creations and others.

Three artist in residency programs support IBB in creating the necessary references and knowledge for the students so that they can get a wide variety of media and the diversity in working methods offered by the artists in residency. The 3 residency program studios consists out of a National program for artists who work and live in the Netherlands, an International Project Space (IPS) for artists from around the world, and a residency for local artists (from Curacao) who get a temporary working space. Each year the IBB hosts 8 artists or theorists in the residency programs. Each artist will give a workshop of a minimum of 2 weeks to the students. At the end of these workshops there is a presentation of the results made by the students. The artists will also have an exhibition or a presentation that specifically reflects their working-period on the island in combination with a lecture on their works made during the residency (this could also be in public space and very site-specific).

At the end of each residency the artists donate a work to the collection of the IBB. A growing collection that by now has works of over 50 artists, students and patients of the Capriles Clinic. By building this collection the IBB aspires to create a collection that can contribute to the cultural heritage of the island Curacao. The collection consists out of paintings, drawings, photographs, but also room-filling 3D objects, installations and video projections which will be permanently exhibited in the new gallery space of IBB, called Esmeralda, which just like the IBB is a former pavilion of the clinic.

Since 2011 we started with a new exchange program called ‘Junior-Senior exchanges.’ The relations with ‘sister-institutions’ in the region are growing and each year we’ll ask one or two residencies of our program to visit a neighbour island and or institution with two of our students to give lectures, workshops and a presentation. This exchange project provides even more qualitative input-output and a broader insight in the development of the students, artists and the institutions.

The IBB is also present during the studies of the students abroad. The necessary guidance and support is of great importance for the ex students. The great challenge of studying abroad can sometimes be of great effect on the youngsters. The cultural differences, the language and the new school and level can sometimes create complicated situations for the students. That’s the reason why IBB has arranged the necessary structures to guide the students and to minimise the (negative effects of) problems that they may get confronted with.

In 2013 the IBB is starting with the special project ‘E Fabbrica’ as a preparation and training towards the finishing of the studies of former IBB students/alumni and the beginning of their careers on their native island Curacao or in the Caribbean region.

This is just a small impression of the complex layered essence of IBB with the visual arts, psychiatry and education that turns it into a unique place.