By Sahara Lyon-Mundy
For many people, art-making tools can be physically difficult to use. Whether a paint brush is too short, a pottery wheel is too low, or a stamp is too hard to grip, many people with physical, intellectual, or developmental disabilities find traditional art supplies inaccessible. For that reason, adaptive art supplies are not only useful, but necessary. Sarah Hall, art teacher at Gretchen Everhart School, stocks her classroom with a wide variety of adaptive art supplies, and as a COCA FY25 Arts Education Grantee, she was able to purchase adaptive spin art machines for her students to use.
What is a spin art machine, and what does it do? A spin art machine is a tool where paper is placed on a spinning mechanism, and paint, ink, and dye can be dropped onto the paper to create a spiral pattern. Hall’s students at Gretchen Everhart had previously enjoyed making spin art, but the small button used to turn the machine on and off was difficult for some of her students to use. With her Arts Education Grant, she was able to purchase six adaptive spin art machines with large switches to control the machine, making them more accessible for students.
Prioritizing access in artmaking has always been central to Hall’s class at Gretchen Everhart. Gretchen Everhart School was started in the late 1960s by parents and students who attended the Candle of Hope School. Today, the school, which was built in 1972, serves around 100 students, ages 5 to 22, with moderate to profound intellectual and developmental disabilities whose unique needs would not be met in other schools in Leon County and six surrounding smaller counties. Hall, whose background is in Special Education, is going into her fourth-year teaching art at Gretchen Everhart, though she previously worked in the school as a substitute and then paraprofessional. After working as a paraprofessional at the school and before returning as the art teacher, Hall worked for two different Adult Day Training Programs for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, one of which was at the art-centric Pyramid Studios. At Pyramid Studios, Hall learned how to make art more accessible through the use of adaptive tools and materials.
Hall gets frequent use out of the adaptive spin art machines she purchased, stating, “we use them all the time, everybody loves them.” She explained that by using the spin art machines, which involve squeezing a certain amount of paint and ink into the spinning paper, her students learn about color mixing, the color wheel, following a sequence, and more. In addition, Hall explained that students “practice portion control with the paint” and “practice functional communication” using visual aids, such as symbols and color charts, to express which paint and how much of it they want to squeeze onto the paper. The finished product can be placed onto different paper backgrounds and displayed, or they can be incorporated into collages.
Accessibility is of utmost importance in Hall’s classroom, but the need for accessibility expands outside of a school such as Gretchen Everhart. Hall stated, “most people want to express themselves creatively; most people want to make art.” Hall discussed the importance of functional communication and the need for her students to learn how to advocate and make choices for themselves. She stated, “art is the vehicle for learning functional communication; art is about making choices.” This philosophy in Hall’s classroom is also why she thinks arts education is so important, going on to say, “art making can be very therapeutic. It helps with self-regulation, creative expression, and it can be enjoyed for life.” She explained that these skills can be taken out of the classroom as well, “I want for my students to be able to advocate for themselves and express their preferences, make their own choices.” Accessible art tools, such as the spin art machines purchased by Hall for her classroom, help teach self-advocacy and decision making through the vehicle of visual art.
Hall was also awarded an FY25 Second Round Arts Education Grant, in which teachers were able to apply for additional funds this past January. She purchased additional adaptive art tools with that grant award, such as paint scrapers, rolling tools, and modeling clay. We can’t wait to see how she implements them in her classroom to continue to empower her students to be more creative, independent, and artful.
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