Beyond ‘the exception’: Northampton art class teaches participants how to make agamographs, gives space to people with IDD and their caregivers

An agamograph is an art form that features two images on one surface. A viewer sees certain designs depending on where they stand: from one angle, they might see, for instance, a rainbow; from another, a cloudy sky.

An upcoming workshop in Northampton likewise has a double purpose: not only will it teach participants how to make agamographs, but it will also give people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and their caregivers a space built to accommodate both groups.

Gayla Berry, a self-taught artist and former teacher, will host an optical kinetic art workshop at 33 Hawley in Northampton on Saturday, Aug. 15, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. She will lead the group in making agamographs, named after Israeli artist Yaacov Agam.

Berry has long navigated these barriers firsthand through her 19-year-old daughter, Talia, who has complex medical needs and IDD. Nearly two decades ago, when Talia was only 2 years old, her struggles with Dravet syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy, were featured in a 2009 Hampshire Life article about the family’s daily life in Northampton.

“Living with her has changed the way I see the world,” Berry said in an emailed statement. “It has taught me to notice barriers that others might overlook and to adapt environments so she can participate and feel successful.”

That can entail, for instance, rearranging furniture in a room to make it easier to navigate, sending out vocabulary words related to the project in advance so that a caregiver can program them into a communication device or adjusting the level of instruction based on individual needs.

Berry and her daughter have taken part in other art workshops where they were welcome, but those workshops weren’t designed specifically for people with IDD and their caregivers simultaneously. Workshops like this one, she said, fill that gap so that caregivers and people with IDD “do not simply feel welcome — they are the reason it exists. They are the point!”

“In many workshops, an individual who needs caregiver support may be the only participant with a caregiver beside them, which can make them feel different or stand out. This workshop changes that experience by making shared participation the norm,” she said. “Here, individuals and their caregivers are not the exception — they are the intended participants.”

Talia’s favorite art practices are painting and hot gluing. When asked why she liked to make art, she replied: “Well, I’m an artist, and artists like to do art.”

Berry has a master’s degree in education and has worked with children and adults in the United States, Venezuela and Bolivia, often with people learning English. As an artist, her interests include “collage, assemblage, process, experimentation and material transformation,” she said.

Other inclusive art classes Berry has taught this summer include workshops on three-dimensional wall sculpture, line sculptures and printmaking at Jericho, the Bureau for Exceptional Children and Adults, a Holyoke-based nonprofit in the Diocese of Springfield that provides religious and social services through western Massachusetts. She will also be teaching an inclusive workshop on monoprinting at 33 Hawley on Sunday, Oct. 25.

These workshops are more about the art-making process than about the outcome. This approach, Berry said, is valuable because “Focusing on process rather than outcome is freeing.”

In the upcoming workshop, Berry won’t be instructing anyone to create a specific design on their agamograph. Instead, each participant will create something entirely unique.

“It communicates that their ideas, choices and approaches have value, and that creativity is not about producing a perfect final product — it’s about exploration, expression and the experience of creating,” she said. “Removing expected outcomes makes art accessible and
meaningful for everyone.”

Ultimately, Berry said, giving people with IDD and their caregivers an opportunity like this is important not only because it’s uncommon, but also because it can stave off the isolation that those families can feel “when community activities aren’t designed with their needs in mind or when participation requires them to constantly explain, advocate or adapt to environments that weren’t created for them.”

“A workshop like this creates more than an opportunity to make art. It creates a community where individuals with IDD and their caregivers can come together with others who understand their experiences without explanation,” she added. “It provides a space where they are seen, valued, and able to build relationships while participating in a common creative experience.”

Admission to the workshop is $35 per individual with IDD, while parents and caregivers attend free. Materials are included in the cost of admission.

To register for the workshop, email gaylasueberry@gmail.com. Registration is open to all ages but is limited to eight people with IDD and their caregivers “to create a calm, supportive environment for those who find larger programs overwhelming,” Berry said. Registration closes on Tuesday, Aug. 11.