The Cultural City of Barthélemy Durand

The Cultural City it is an ambitious project in the psychiatric clinic EPS Barthélemy Durand, in Etampes, France. This project is providing regular interventions of professional arts (photography, dance, music, literature etc.) for patients, health professionals and city inhabitants – in this way not only ensuring equal access to arts and culture to all, but also with its inclusive approach contributing to the de-stigmatisation of the patients with mental health issues. Next to these everyday activities, the project envisages a fundamental reconstruction of the territory of the hospital by building a whole complex of buildings for arts & culture and also by developing a new navigation system in and around the territory of the clinics in order to open up towards the city.
The Cultural City Barthélemy Durand implements the cultural policy of the Public Health Establishment (EPS) Barthélemy Durand (Essonne), specialized in psychiatric care. It reflects the will and the requirement of the management of the care establishment to understand culture as the driving force of a new institutional dynamic, in favor of cultural rights. The Cultural City is a transversal space with 70 structures that make up the EPS Barthélemy Durand. It offers artistic encounters, a program of shows, artistic residencies, a program of amateur artistic practices, a well-being center and a space for collective reflection, in connection with the cultural structures and the inhabitants of the territory.