SPANISH FORT, Ala. — Local art enthusiasts interested in expanding their collections while supporting employment for the disabled can do both at Five Rivers Delta Resource Center Saturday.

The Mobile Association for the Blind has partnered with Walt Adelman, a wholesale art gallery owner in New York City, to host a two-day art show and sale benefitting the 83-year-old nonprofit.

John Hakanson, the Mobile-based association’s grant writer and fundraiser, said Adelman provides investment-quality art that patrons might find

in museums or private collections, but the prices will range in price from $50 to $50,000.

Twenty percent of the proceeds from Saturday’s noon to 5 p.m. event—followed Sunday with an encore event at the Daugherty Gallery in Mobile—will benefit the association, and that portion of the purchase price is tax deductible as are 100 percent of direct donations to the nonprofit. The show features both American and European artists—renowned and unknown—in a variety of styles such as paintings, etchings, lithographs, watercolors and engravings.

“There’s going to be beautiful natural art outside and beautiful man-made art inside,” Hakanson said, applauding the Five Rivers staff for hosting the unusual event.

The free event will also feature Adelman’s intermittent lectures on particular artists and techniques as time allows, he said.

The association, founded in 1926, serves and employs people with disabilities, providing work space for employees to manufacture mops, brooms and plastic bags, the sale of which supports the operation.

The recession, however, has increased demand for the nonprofits services, and Hakanson said the facility is in desperate need of repairs to continue providing employment for some 75 people with sensory, mobility and mental impairments.

“Mother Nature has not been kind, and our roof is leaking. We’re getting it fixed, but with the weather it’s continued to lead and we’ve lost a lot of stock and suffered damage to a lot of equipment. We’re looking at people losing their jobs if we don’t address these needs soon,” Hakanson said.

He said the economic downturn has also done irreparable damage because it’s difficult to compete with the bottom-line pricing of big-box chains and offshore operations. In addition state funding has been cut due to recent budget restrictions and the loss of the local Delchamp’s supermarket chain significantly reduced the nonprofits’ sales that once topped $3 million annually.

“It breaks my heart. We put out a really good product, and it helps local people in the community, but (chains) are always going to have the bottom-line price, and it’s hard for us to catch a break,” he said.