These people are not able to work, and it's validating to have someone buy your work. A couple of the artists have aspirations to build themselves a studio to do more work, full- or part-time. The talent is there to do it.
There's a danger of exploitation when you get the galleries and museums involved and it's being sensationalized. I don't feel that's what Arline is doing with this show at all. This population is isolated. They are outside the mainstream, but the whole point of this show is to create a bridge, which sort of flies in the face of the whole concept of outsider art.
Some are coming to the show specifically because of the subject matter. They're interested in issues pertaining to both art and mental illness and ways people can express themselves. So the qualifier is the attraction.
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