Starting Feb. 19, the Central Washington University Museum of Culture and Environment will be hosting “Beyond Black and White: The Stories Behind the Masks,” an exhibit which focuses on diversity.
The exhibit will be held in Dean Hall and will be open to the public until the end of the school year.
“What we’re hoping is that it will give an opportunity to students to express something about their identity,” said Bill Wood, director of the museum and assistant anthropology professor.
The event features masks from around the world, as well as masks made by Central students.
The exhibit will be broken up into five parts. The first three parts, put together by Anthropology students who are minoring in Museum Studies, will display masks from places such as southern Mexico, Africa, Bali and an American Indian mask from the Pacific Northwest. These masks will represent diversity around the world.
“This is an opportunity to see beneath the surface,” Wood said.
The other two parts of the exhibit are put together by the Diversity Education Center and will feature masks created by Central students to show a personal representation of their diversity. Each student has a different story behind their mask and a different reason for why they created it.
Sarah Chushcoff, senior interdisciplinary social science major, created her mask based off of something her mother had said: “Your friends and family are all representations of who you
are.”
To capture this message, Chushcoff covered her mask with patchwork with each piece representing her friends because she believes they are pieces of who she is.
Chushcoff loves art and expressing herself through the discipline. She believes making the masks is a great way to educate people about diversity.
Jeremy Higuchi, senior graphic design major, also created a mask. The design for his mask was also inspired by friends and the six degrees of separation theory, an idea that everyone is connected in some way.
“I got involved because it’s what I believe and the Diversity Education Center fights for,” Higuchi said.
Both Chushcoff and Higuchi hope the exhibit gets people involved.
Another part of the exhibit will include a loose folder containing photos of each student and their mask, and what their mask means to them.
There will also be a video playing throughout the event that highlights diversity here at Central . “Removing the Mask” is an 11-minute video created by Shawn Gatlabayal, senior chemistry major.
Gatlabayal came across the issue with identity and wanted to explore why humans wear different “masks” around different people, and how they come to be.
“We get a mask put on our face so early that we accept that mask and become those stereotypes and labels,” Gatlabayal said. “Get to know the person before you judge them, look beyond the mask.”
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