From the moment you enter “Into the Brightness: Artists From Creativity Explored, Creative Growth & NIAD” at the Oakland Museum of California, there’s a sense of joy. It isn’t just the burst of colors, the bounty of the expansive salon-hung main wall or the unexpected floating sculptures that bring a dose of serotonin, it’s feeling how present the artists of the three participating art centers for the developmentally disabled are throughout the show. That begins with video interviews that bring their faces and voices into the Great Hall and extends to playlists curated by the different art centers. But ultimately, it’s the art that makes the biggest statement.

For the past 50 years, the art centers founded by Elias Katz and Florence Ludens-Katz — Creativity Explored in San Francisco, Creative Growth in Oakland, and NIAD (Nurturing Independence Through Artistic Development) Art Center in Richmond — have made the Bay Area a leader in the conversation about neurodiversity and inclusion. Many of the studios’ artists, like William Scott and Marlon Mullen, have been collected by institutions including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian and the Museum of Modern Art, breaking the label “outsider artist.”

After three years of pandemic and lingering gloom, it’s a pleasure to take in Nicole Storm’s expansive paper installation, groupings of Jason Powell-Smith’s text-based works and entire areas devoted to themes like musical instruments, textile and fashion designs, and ceramic works.Curator Carin Adams does a masterful job of including a wide array of mediums and a huge selection of artists. Among the highlights are Monica Valentine’s intricately sequined sculptures, a group of Mullen’s magazine-inspired paintings, four narrative works by Rosena Finister with her signature speech bubbles, fiber sculpture by Joseph Omolayole and a collaborative mural by the Creativity Explored studio.

With so much darkness in parts of our discourse at present, a little “brightness” is just what we need.

"Into the Brightness: Artists From Creativity Explored, Creative Growth & NIAD": 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. 1-9 p.m. Friday. Through Jan. 31, 2024. $7-$16, free for children 8 and younger. Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. 510-318-8400. www.museumca.org