Reclaiming Our Heritage Project

Jan-Bert

In his role as director of Artlink, Jan-Bert has been organising and developing community-based art projects to benefit communities for nearly three decades. He discusses the positive benefits to individuals from simple engagement with creativity.

Name: Jan-Bert Van den Berg 

Years: 1990s – Present  

In his role as director of Artlink, Jan-Bert has been organising and developing community-based art projects to benefit communities for nearly three decades. He discusses the positive benefits to individuals from simple engagement with creativity.  

Jan-Bert talks about the long-term process of changing attitudes to mental health, which, he believes, starts with increasing awareness.  

Excerpts: 

“I think it gives people an opportunity to explore what’s possible for them, who they are but not in an analytical therapeutic way, but much more as a person.” 

“… those are actually the aspects of art that I think are really important … because actually, the single focus is no longer the specific issue which in this case might be mental health, it is about humanity, which I quite like.”