Van Gogh for the visually impaired.

With no background or training in visual impairment, I was challenged when I learned that a visually impaired student would be mainstreamed into my regular art education class. In her previous school, she had been separated from her classmates and given latch hook work to do. Since it is important socially and emotionally for her to do the same art projects as her classmates, I tried to do as many textural projects as possible, and adapted projects for her as best I could.

Art history, however, continued to be a barrier to her art education experiences. Blind since birth, she was unable to comprehend even the most rudimentary discussions of art elements in an art print or slide.

As the rest of the class discussed van Gogh's Starry Night, I longed for a way for her to experience the painting. She would be able to sense the movement and texture of the composition if only she could feel the actual painting.

I decided to make a textural representation of the masterpiece for her to feel. Her paraprofessional aide volunteered to make it using fabric paints. Using a variety of squeeze fabric paints, her aide replicated the painting's short, choppy lines, brushstrokes, and movement.

As the rest of the class used oil pastels to interpret van Gogh's Starry Night, the visually impaired student felt her textural print of the masterpiece. With Don McLean's song "Vincent" playing in the background, it was wonderful to see a student that had previously been unable to experience a famous work of art finally understand the magic of van Gogh. She was thrilled, and stopped me in the school office several days later to tell me that she had hung it on her bedroom wall at home.

NATIONAL STANDARD

Students identify specific works of art as belonging to particular cultures, times, and places.

Susan Schumacher is an art instructor at Machesney Elementary School in Machesney Park, Illinois.