With a direct acknowledgement from the museum world from the mid-nineties, David Bade has combined his autonomous work with a more socially-oriented direction that standardised aspects like participation, inclusion and collaborating on grand installations and environments with people of all walks of life. 

This approach has taken him back to Curaçao, the island where he was born, and where he founded the IBB (Instituto Buena Bista) in 2006 together with Tirzo Martha. Located on the premises of a mental health organisation, this art centre, revolving around the artist-in-residence workshops and preliminary training of prospective Curaçao talents, gained a pendant in Rotterdam in 2016. 

Specifically, the structural partnership with Kunsthal, AYCA (All you can Art). Organising summer school courses, open studios at the museum and in neighbourhoods, and especially collaborations with partners in education and care, Bade has long demonstrated that his vision on art, along with the effects it has, is of urgent importance for society. 

This also shown by his long-running project DBTHODT (David Bade tekent Heerlen onder de tafel, or “David Bade draws Heerlen under the table”) in collaboration with the cultural institution Schunk (in the city of Heerlen) since 2013.