Photo Friday: Beyond Black and White

It's been a crazy month here at the Museum of Culture and Environment. A week ago we opened our second exhibit: Beyond Black and White: The Stories Behind Our Masks. We're especially excited about the exhibit for two reasons: it features lots of amazing masks from our own collection and we were able to work with CWU's Diversity Education Center.

The photo above shows our two tigre masks in their case, and you can see the reflection of the toro mask in the reflection. In the background are 20 masks created by students in conjunction with the Diversity Education Center.

From a collections standpoint, this exhibit was our first real try at mounting objects for exhibit, and we went for a fairly low tech approach. The tigre masks are supported by a custom carved block of ethafoam, with a small piece of volara under the chin to cushion the pressure point. Simple, but effective. Some of the other pieces were much trickier.

Packing Update 1/30/2009

We're shifting into full gear here at the Collections Department as we finish up various projects and move into packing full time. My dedicated interns have been hard at work. They're finishing up the photography of the collection (so we have a visual record of our objects):

You can see our high tech photo background above. Another intern is working on creating surfaces so we can move delicate objects like this Bear mask safely.

The cedar bark used for the mane is extremely fragile and small losses occur whenever it is picked up. The board minimizes the need to handle the mask directly and keeps any lost bark with the mask. Other masks have many fragile parts which need to be stabilized as much as possible (so the vibrations during movement don't cause damage):

And in the midst of this, we're still packing. And we have the gaps in the storage to prove it!

That's the former home of about 6000 pieces of chipped stone. Now all tidily shrink wrapped and ready to head over to Dean Hall. And our box stack keeps growing and growing. (This is one of three box stacks - don't let it deceive you.)

Happy Halloween!

A mask from the collection - from Mexico. Possibly a Moros y Cristianos mask, and probably not a Guy Fawkes mask like I thought it might be initially. Although V will probably continue to be a popular costume this year.

Have a happy and safe Halloween weekend, however you celebrate.