Sometimes I have a block when I can’t paint. But right now, I am making more art than ever. I love transforming everyday materials into beautiful and functional art. I paint light switch covers, decoupage old trays that I get from thrift stores, and fold origami containers. My greatest passion is showing other people how to make origami boxes. There is something profoundly soothing in the folding. It allows my hands and my mind to find peace. It is a quiet joy that I love to share.  [photo of these boxes are somewhere i just saw – maybe square or our market place] 

What makes Art Spark so special is that their programs create space for artists with any kind of disability to create, produce, learn, and grow. I saw that art shows by people who are dealing with mental illness were restricted to hospital or clinic settings. We are  hidden away. I founded the annual San Antonio exhibition, ‘Expressions,’ to showcase the work of artists with mental illness in a gallery where their work is proudly on display. Art Spark helped me make my dream a reality.

I still treasure the piece I created in my first Art Spark ‘Artworks: Dream Big’ workshop. That day opened my creativity. In fact, I was so inspired I entered my first show at a San Antonio gallery, and they asked me to stay. I began selling my work at First Friday events and connecting with a wider audience who appreciate what I do.  The annual ‘Expressions’ exhibition – now celebrating its 19th year – is a direct result of that experience.

Art Spark Texas is connection. No games. I can just let my creativity go. Do what I want, with no limits. We are a good match because Art Spark understands me and supports my own artistic journey.”

After eight years of art outreach to grade schools for Art Spark Texas, Jan Meeks remembers breakthrough moments that brought home her mission as a teaching artist. “One of my favorites … was at [Austin’s] Zavala Elementary School kindergarten class,” she says. “We were working on a giant mural laid out in the hallway.” 

Throughout the term, Jan had been collecting the small art projects the kids had been making. These were going on the mural. “I had an idea of making snow,” she says. “The kids used squirt bottles of glue to cover the mural. Then we took bricks of styrofoam and rubbed them together, and all the little pieces of styrofoam came down and stuck to the glue.”

One small boy with Downs Syndrome stood in the “snowstorm.” “It was flying everywhere and he threw his head back, opened his arms, closed his eyes and stuck out his tongue like he was catching flakes. It made it all worthwhile to see him. I knew then I was [knocking] down boundaries.

“Art Spark programs are life-changing for everyone,” Jan says. “What I was doing is not only teaching the kids, but teaching the teachers how to use art — and that is probably the toughest part. Kids are a blank slate; they’re easy to teach. It’s the teachers and getting them to realize that there is not a right and wrong. You may want it to look one way, but it’s going to come out looking totally different. And that’s OK.

“There was an Arts Spark arts book that we could pull out for curriculum and ideas,” she says. She continues handing out Art Spark Texas materials whenever somebody asks for resources.

Jan says her Art Spark experience also benefited herself. “I began to value myself a bit more by putting into action what I am truly capable of. It just hit home,” she says. “Working with people with disabilities or kids in general, I realized that what I was doing was more powerful than I ever thought, because not everyone can do it. By doing so with Art Spark, it kind of reinforced what I was already doing and it gave me more self-confidence that I was doing things right, that everything that I thought was for me, was beneficial to somebody else.

“I would work with Art Spark Texas again in a heartbeat.”

It’s nearly impossible to sum up Eric Clow’s contributions to Art Spark Texas in a few hundred words, but going over it all, a strong theme emerges: As much as he’s helped others, they’ve also helped him in equal measure. Beginning in 2012 when he came in to talk to kids about radio with KOOP radio programmer Thor Armbruster (2022 Lynn Marie Johnson Media Arts Award winner), Eric seemed to touch ever wider groups of people by taking on one role after another. During the radio camp,  he met Celia Hughes, and in short order was running a music camp, figuring out how to use software like GarageBand by also teaching it to disabled kids. 

“It was just a very powerful experience of learning, and when you give back as you teach and help other people to realize their art, there’s not many better feelings in the world really,” Eric says. “It’s such a powerful and just moving experience.”

By summer 2013 Eric started four years of co-creating and co-teaching the Opening Minds Opening Doors program alongside Chris Strickling, coordinating showcases, conferences and new programs across Texas. For five years, he co-hosted the Lion and Pirate open mics at the old Malvern Books, improving his music chops by writing and performing a new song every month. He also helped lead the ATXgo! project, building an online accessibility guide to Austin’s performance venues and museums, and arranging in-person visits to over 70 park facilities in the area and surrounding counties. The database includes contact info and listings for over 900 parks. And there are many other projects he participated in as well.

“You look at any community that Art Spark Texas has created and … the aim of all of them [is] showing you what disabled people are capable of,” Eric says.

“Arts Spark is still very, very dear to me,” he says. “Now I’m on the outside just continuing to support the mission any way I can because I think it’s making the arts accessible for everyone, [which] is such an important purpose.”

These days, as a writer, birder, birding coordinator and podcaster, Eric uses the many skills he honed at Art Spark Texas.

“I feel like those are the main ways [it has benefited me] — and, of course, in meeting and introducing me to my wife, [writer Nicole Corticchiato,]” Eric says. “That was kind of life-changing too.” Nicole was project facilitator for OMOD. The two have been married for six years.

Brenda Shirk has a passion for live theatre and movies. And she loves to learn new things.

“I audio-described ‘Titanic,’” she recounts, “which was released the year we first offered audio description.” 

In 1997, audio description was still a new practice, largely underdeveloped and only sparsely available. It is a narration service that provides verbal descriptions of key visual elements in media and live performances, making them accessible to individuals who are blind, low vision, or visually impaired. 

“I described all the visual elements, the costumes, the ship, the ice – without talking over any of the dialogue”, Brenda says enthusiastically. “It was the most enjoyment I ever got from a movie.”

With the help of dedicated volunteers like Brenda, Art Spark Texas became pioneers in the field of audio description, training audio describers and producing some of the first audio description training tapes. In fact, Brenda was one of the first volunteers to train as a descriptor. She learned that she could share her passion for film and theater with blind and visually impaired individuals in the community. 

The organization eventually developed training and mentorship programs to ensure quality, emphasize hands-on practice, and support continuous improvement, and was involved in the Audio Description Coalition to develop national guidelines for audio description certification.

Art Spark’s emphasis on training has made an impact across the arts and internationally, training docents and conducting workshops in places like Taiwan and Hong Kong, and helping museums create more inclusive experiences for visitors who have visual impairments. 

Brenda realizes that volunteering at Art Spark Texas changed her perspective. “I could make a difference in people’s lives,” she says. “It was a huge awakening.”  And the blind and visually impaired community thanks her for her commitment to, and expertise in, audio description. “It is a way to share the arts with others unlike any you could imagine. Your heart will soar with the experience and you will enjoy the difference you can make.”

Every volunteer, every action, every connection, every performance is an opportunity to expand our world and create richer, more meaningful cultural experiences for everyone.

The Rosedale School is a unique public campus within Austin Independent School District  where students ages 3 – 22, from all over the district, have access to tailored educational opportunities that help increase their independence, improve self-esteem, develop life and work skills, and lead to a greater quality of life. Two major partners in the Art Spark Dance program were administration leaders at Rosedale School, Elizabeth Dickey and Brian Henry.

Elizabeth Dickey

As a former principal of the Rosedale School, Elizabeth Dickey had an ‘AHA’ moment the first time she witnessed students in wheelchairs moving in an accessible dance class. “I realized then that the Art Spark instructor was truly helping her students access movement and emotion in a way I had not seen before. If anyone was able to step into that moment, they would see sparkling eyes, joy-filled faces, emotional processing, and grace.” 

These classes also provided a bridge for many of the Rosedale School staff members to gain a better understanding of what their students could do; what each student enjoyed in a way that wasn’t a traditional classroom or teaching experience. Partnering with Art Spark Texas provided a window to the ways that every individual connects with movement and music in a unique and meaningful way. It helped us to understand the power of small actions that can lead to big changes in people with high support needs.

Elizabeth believes Art Spark Texas is an art-focused, solution finder, making dance and art accessible and joyful to everyone. 

Brian Henry

In 2025, Brian Henry, past President of the Rosedale Foundation, served as Master of Ceremonies for the Art Spark Texas Artist of the Year Awards. “Participating in the event gave me a deep introspective view into the freedom of identifying as an Artist,” he says thoughtfully. “That’s something I’ve been missing for many years.” 

“When Principal Elizabeth Dickey and Art Spark’s Celia Hughes put their heads together to meet one of the many mandates for graduation sent along by  the Texas Education Agency,  the Rosedale Dance Program was born.”  After initial funding from AISD’s Fine Arts Department, the Rosedale Foundation has provided the essential financial support to concertize this program as a major component in each student’s school-based experiences.

“The program creates a rare and powerful environment where individuals of all abilities can connect through creativity, movement, and joy,” says Brian. “Here at The Rosedale Foundation, we have seen the incredible impact that Art Spark has on students, teachers, families, and caregivers. It continues to strengthen inclusion, emotional wellness, and community engagement across the entire Rosedale community.”

Luke Stollings came to Art Spark Texas to participate in our audio description training sessions and fell in love with the process. 
“Converting visual information into words during a live theater event really lit up my brain.” In a recent article from Tribeza on Art Spark. As he says in the article, “I keep coming back to volunteer with Art Spark Texas for several reasons. First, helping someone else enhance their theater experience makes me really happy. Audio description can be an important part of a blind patron’s experience at the theater. Second, the challenge of accurately, quickly, and succinctly describing key visual content in words, and doing so in a way that doesn’t “step on” the actor’s dialogue or singing. Finally, I love how I get to play a small part in the overall mission of Art Spark Texas to champion accessibility in the arts.” Read more here: https://magazine.tribeza.com/books/dekl/#p=116