DES MOINES, Iowa- A Simpson College student designed an invention with the goal of helping neurodivergent children interact more with art.

Madison Harvey is a junior at Simpson College studying education. On a school trip to the Des Moines Arts Center, Harvey noticed a need for larger art barriers.

“My teacher had stepped over this little black line that they had on the floor as their boundary. So I was like, you know what, what if we made a boundary something that was bigger and more obvious so people don’t step over it,” said Harvey.

She wanted to use her art barrier to help make spaces like art centers and museums more inclusive to neurodivergent children.

“You can have a kid go to the grocery store and like touch everything on the shelves and it’s not going to do much damage. But, you can’t do that at a museum. You can’t do that at an art center.”

She built her art barrier using PVC pipes and different items that would add texture to the pipes, including fake flowers, buttons, beaded necklaces, and more.

“When kids who are neurodivergent need something to touch or to play with, or they get easily distracted and they want to touch stuff… [the art barrier is] something that they can utilize and actually touch. So then you can distract them from wanting to touch something valuable to something less valuable,” she said.

Harvey said she still has a long way to go until she reaches her final version of the art barrier, but she’s proud of the progress she has made from her first prototype. She said Art Farm Iowa has even shown interest in installing the barrier when they re-open in June 2025. Harvey is currently looking into the process of patenting her design.