Animal Masks Linking Art and Anthropology

This Year 9 (Grade 8) Art project was inspired by a life-long love of masks and mask culture and by a recent visit to the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa. I have collected masks in my travels, and have constructed several of my own. Recently, I made two masks from cardboard – a Krampus mask based on the European tradition, and a lion mask inspired by The Lion King’s Scar character and a mask I found online. In the school project, students were asked to find a culture or mask maker who uses animals as inspiration for their designs. They then completed an artist study, found reference images, and created sketches to help them in constructing individual masks, which could be copies or extensions of what they found in their research. Following a reflection activity, final works were displayed in a four-class collection.

Learn more about the Canadian Museum of History and the First Nations of West Coast Canada at https://www.historymuseum.ca/event/grand-hall/