OUTSIDE FORCES 2025

SUBMISSIONS FOR OUTSIDE FORCES 2025 ARE NOW CLOSED! Please find basic exhibition info below and email mlong@art-enables.org with any questions.

Art Enables is excited to announce "Outside Forces" 2025, our 19th annual exhibition highlighting the work of self-taught artists. It is an honor for us to organize this exhibition each year in celebration of incredible self-taught artists around the country.

If you are a self-taught or outsider artist, we’d love to see your work! 

Important dates:
Friday, July 18: submission deadline
Weds, July 23: notification of acceptance
Wednesday, August 13: all artwork received at Art Enables in Washington, DC (shipped or delivered in person)
Tuesday, September 2: the exhibition is open to the public!
Saturday, September 6, 5 - 7 pm: Opening reception at Art Enables
October 25: final day of exhibition

Other info:

This is a juried exhibition. Individual artists are asked to submit up to five works, and studios up to 15, through the online form below. Studios, please feel free to submit multiple artists via one form.

We can display framed and/or unframed work for this show. Participating studios/artists will be responsible for all costs of shipping and delivery of artwork both to and from Art Enables. All artwork must be delivered ready-to-hang including all hanging hardware for framed work. We can hang unframed works on paper using magnets, clips, or another method you prefer.

Art Enables will handle sales of artwork displayed in the gallery, retaining a 40% commission on any sales.

More info about the exhibition:

The term 'Outsider Art' may call to mind a number of concepts, many that have been historically debated. Defined in the strictest sense, it may include only artists who work in extreme isolation, have little to no contact with other artists and art institutions, and who may not even have a concept of their own work as art. Today, with outsider art gaining popularity and recognition, and under the ever-present influence of the internet, the term is often (sometimes controversially) used more broadly: focusing on self-taught artists without requiring its creators to be completely unaware of art at large. While an exact definition of Outsider Art can be difficult to pin down, one often feels they know it when they see it: inventive work of extreme individuality motivated by the artist’s own personal concepts and desires, rather than the expectations of the mainstream art world. 

Art Enables embraces these more expansive parameters in “Outside Forces,” presenting work by artists who may not have had many opportunities to exhibit. Featured artists include individuals who are emerging and self-taught, are from traditionally underrepresented communities, and those with disabilities. All have paved their own way in the formation of their work, representing personal experiences and interests in individual styles developed outside the conventions of mainstream art education and culture. This exhibition began in 2006 as a way for DC-area groups working with self-taught artists to exhibit together. Over the last 17 years, the exhibition’s success has seen it grow to span all three exhibition spaces at Art Enables, featuring artists from across the nation alongside our resident artists. The show continues to be an excellent introduction for a community curious about outsider art, looking to start their own collection with a selection of affordable work in a wide array of styles.