
Very often people
with developmental disabilities are better able to express themselves
in images than in words. Art Enables is focused on just such a group: thirty-some
artists whose disabilities include but are not limited to Down syndrome, autism,
traumatic brain injury, bipolar disorder. Their ages range from 24 to 72.
They are African-American, Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian, Arab.
Art Enables gives them the resources and supports they need to become visual
artists. Their artwork is exhibited and sold at the studio, at host venues
and via the web site. They earn 60% of revenue from sales. They have a chance
to tell their stories, and they find people eager to listen.
Art Enables has two other goals:
To further in the arts market an appreciation of outsider and contemporary
folk art, that category into which most of the work by Art Enables artists
falls
To further an understanding and acceptance of the alternative, visual way
in which many people who are marginalized for any number of reasons can communicate
when they are given the chance









