The Baltimore County Public Schools Adaptive Art Exhibition is a juried exhibition that features artworks by BCPS students using adaptive art techniques and tools to create meaningful artworks that reflect their creativity, unique abilities, independence, and voice! The Adaptive Art Exhibition is a celebration of creativity and self-expression, highlighting the remarkable talents of students with diverse needs and learning styles through adaptive art practices. These practices include the use of modified tools, alternative materials, and unique methods to accommodate the student’s needs and accessibility to the arts. The virtual exhibition consists of over 100 student artworks from Baltimore County Public Schools students in grades PreK-12. 43 selected artworks were on display at the the Towson University StarTUp at the Armory in Towson, Maryland, from November 11-December 8, 2025. The exhibition also had a second showing at the January 2026 Baltimore County Public Schools Principal Leadership Development, at the Employee Development Center, in Timonium, Maryland. Students’ works range from paintings, drawings, ceramics, mixed media, and sculptures. We would like to congratulate all our student artists in this exhibit!
Here McKenna is a fourth grade student at Battle Monument School. Her purple love crayon is made using a light shade of purple. McKenna drew curly purple lines with a purple paint stick- it looks just like the giant purple crayon colored on the background! McKenna’s artwork is colorful, and happy — something that makes people smile when they see it.
After completing a series of practice landscape paintings Kaden indicated he would like to paint a river that is black and red. We found a reference image of an erupting volcano. He began by layering pinks, yellows and oranges in the sky. Kaden then painted the black land mass of the volcano and layered the lava flows and eruptions over the land and sky.
After completing a series of practice landscape paintings Sophia indicated she would like to paint a beach using yellow and white. We found a reference image looking out at the ocean from a beach. Sophia began with light blue and white values in the sky. She then applied a light yellow and brown mixture to create the sand. Yellow and brown mixtures were layered on the beach to create the sand. Finally a horizon line with thick black and blue paint was applied to create a sense of depth.
I choose noodles because they are one of my favorite things to eat. I used lines to show how the noodles are shaped. For value, I used lots of colors. My artwork was influenced by Candy Jernigan because this artist liked food and they drew about it. Well, I had a hard time with keeping the colors where they were supposed to be, but I took my time and tried my best.
Eunice is an eight-grade student at Maiden Choice School. She is the artist of the Matisse-inspired collage. For this piece, Eunice learned about various collage artists including Henri Matisse. Eunice selected colors of construction paper and chose shapes for her collage. Making these choices allows Eunice to take ownership of her work. She used adapted electric scissors by pressing a button to make the scissors cut. Eunice chose spots for the cut-outs. With help of the additional adults, Eunice glued her pieces in place. Eunice enjoys visual arts and color very much. She can almost always be found holding a magazine and browsing the colorful pages. Eunice’s sense of color is evident in her artwork.
I created this apple tree because I wanted to make a piece of art that you can experience with your hands, not just your eyes. My favorite thing about the artwork is feeling the different materials that make up the tree. The background uses watercolor, which is very smooth and cool on the paper. It makes me think of the gentle feeling of the sky. For the leaves, I painted the paper first, and then I tore it into lots of little pieces. Tearing the paper gave the leaves a wonderful, uneven texture that feels crunchy and layered. The apples are the most fun part. I used soft, round balls of air-dry clay so they stand out from the page. Each apple is bumpy and squishy, making the tree feel heavy and full of fruit, ready for harvest. This artwork is a celebration of autumn’s textures – the smooth watercolor, the rough painted paper, and the soft, sticky air-dry clay – all combined into one piece.
Samara Machado Macias, a first-grade student at Maiden Choice School, is the artist of Poppies. For this piece, Samara utilized both art and non-art materials to create a multimedia display of a poppy field. Using ASL and core words, Samara learned different characteristics of poppies as well as the appearance of poppies in art history and pop culture. To create this exciting piece, Samara worked hard to use fine motor skills to paint a light green tempera background with an adapted paintbrush and stamp dark green lines up and down with a piece of cardboard. Next, she painted cupcake liners with red and black liquid watercolors and watched as the colors bled throughout the liner. When the liners were dry, Samara used adapted electric scissors by independently pressing a button to make the scissors cut. After cutting a slit and folding the liners in, Samara created three-dimensional flowers which she then chose a spot for within her background. Making choices and moving her arms independently allows Samara to take ownership of her work. Samara enjoys expressing herself through her art and is very excited to be a part of this extraordinary exhibition.
Noah’s artwork, “Rooster,” was created during a middle school mixed media unit. Students viewed and analyzed Oaxacan alebrijies (wooden folk art sculptures of various creatures with intricate patterns and bright colors). Noah looked at several pre-cut silhouettes of animals and selected a rooster. Next, using a Voca with color choices, he selected red, yellow and white to paint dots onto the rooster with a q-tip dipped in tempera paint. Then he selected green as his background color and used sponges dipped in brown, black and yellow tempera paint to add texture representing the ground. While that was drying, he drew independently with markers on green construction paper which he then cut (with assistance) into leaf and grass shapes. Noah also cut out a circle to represent the sun and chose to paint it yellow. Once everything was dry, he arranged his composition and used a brush dipped in glue to adhere all of the elements in his collage. Noah was asked how he felt about his collage and using his personal communication device he said, “Happy!”
Colin’s artwork, “Leaves,” was created during an elementary school line unit in art class. Students watched time lapse videos of leaves changing colors and a song about the art element line. Then, they examined leaves and identified the veins that are straight lines. Colin used cardboard dipped in glue to print lines onto coffee filters to create veins on leaves. Once the glue was dry, Colin selected the colors brown and red with a Voca communication device and applied watercolor paint to the coffee filters. Once the paint was dry, Colin selected three different leaves and with assistance cut out their shapes. He again used the Voca communication device to select his background color (green). Finally he arranged and glued his leaves on with a brush dipped in glue with assistance. Colin was asked if he liked or disliked his final project with communication cards and he selected, “Like.”