On 17 March 2016 the Hermitage–Amsterdam Exhibition Centre, Het Dolhuys museum for psychiatry in Haarlem and Cordaan centre, a company managing several specialist health institutions in the Netherlands, are opening a new museum within the Hermitage–Amsterdam Exhibition Centre: the Outsider Art Museum.
Outsiders – non-professional artists, including some with mental disorders – from many countries have been involved in the creation of their own permanently functioning museum in the centre of Amsterdam. It presents works by artists from Britain, France, Iran, Japan and, of course, the Netherlands. The display also includes works by Shinichi Sawada, the Japanese artist who through his participation in the 2013 Venice Biennale first focussed attention on the creativity of outsiders.
The Hermitage–Amsterdam Exhibition Centre is known in the Netherlands for its extensive programme of supplementary education for gifted children. The “Hermitage for Children” operates in a separate building adjoining the main home of the exhibition centre. In connection with the opening of the new museum, a class will also begin operating in the children’s centre providing supplementary education for “special” people, whose works may later take their place in the display of the Outsider Art Museum.
To create the museum’s permanent display, part of the ground floor of the building housing the Hermitage–Amsterdam Centre has been revamped, expanding the centre’s exhibition space.
The museum was opened by Queen Maxima of the Netherlands.
