BRATTLEBORO-The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) invites exploration of individuals' inner animals in a mask-making workshop with Vermont sculptor Art Costa on Saturday, Aug. 10, from 2 to 4 p.m.
Inspired by many of the artworks currently on view at the museum, Costa and Kate Milliken, BMAC's manager of education programs, will provide instruction and supplies for participants to create animal masks.
The workshop is suitable for all ages and takes place at 28 Vernon St., the office building next door to BMAC.
During the workshop, Costa will provide a variety of mask templates, and participants will use recycled boxboard - light cardboard from cereal boxes or pasta boxes - to assemble a mask of their choice, which they can embellish with paint, tissue paper, and other recycled materials.
"We'll ask everybody to think about their own characteristics, their own secret superpower," Milliken says in a news release, "and to consider relating that to an animal and making that animal into a mask."
Milliken and Costa were inspired to develop the workshop by all the animal and nature elements in the museum's summer exhibits, as well as by the exhibits' exploration of the connection between humans and nature.
Costa has led mask-making workshops in local schools for years, and has devised "some really cool ways to manipulate paper recyclables," Milliken says. "People will be able to let their imaginations go wild."
The workshop materials include only everyday items that many people have lying around at home. That's by design, Milliken says.
"You don't have to go out and buy lots of fancy things to be an artist," she says. Her goal for the workshop - besides helping people create masks that they can take home - is to show that artmaking can be "playful and accessible and sustainable."
Costa and Milliken will share printed mask templates for participants to take home for future use.
Admission is $45. BMAC members receive a $10 discount. All materials are included. Children 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult. Space is limited, so registration is required. For more information about registration and accessibility, visit brattleboromuseum.org or call 802-257-0124, ext. 101.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.