The creative impulse

Throughout history, art made by the disabled and the mentally ill has all too often been either stigmatised or fetishised. In a fantastic piece for Vice on Headway East London and the community of brain-damaged artists who work there, Joe Zadeh does neither. Instead, he paints a picture of a group of people who simply find themselves compelled to create - an impulse that most of us either lose as we get older or that is actively drummed out of us.

Michelle, the artist who runs the remarkable project, argues that its value (and the value of making art) is profound: "So many people here have lost identity and the studio gives that to them. 'Discovery through art' - that's our studio's mission statement. What are you discovering? We are discovering what it is to be this new person, and what creativity can do for your life." Zadeh's article bears out the truth of that assessment.