May Term Students Learn About Mask Making, Identity in Mexico City
- Jan 26, 2023
After two years without international travel, Associate Dean of UTeach Fine Arts Roxanne Schroeder-Arce ventured to Mexico City with nine students in May 2022 for the study abroad program “Engaging the Arts as Audience: Mexican Art and Youth.”
One of the program’s guest instructors included multidisciplinary artist Daniel Loyola, who led the students in a weeklong workshop focused on mask making and identity. After choosing an animal based on its relevance to each students' identity, they each sketched out their masks and constructed them with found materials.
Once the masks were chosen and constructed, Loyola directed a “mask ritual,” in which the students moved around the room, embodying their chosen animal to explore their relationship to the world through their art.
“It was really amazing,” said Trinity Gordon, a fourth-year theatre education major who enjoyed the mask-making workshop. “The mask-making experience helped me to look at parts of my identity that I have been reluctant to examine before. It also helped the class to further nurture our community as we explored Mexico together.”
Read more about the program on the College of Fine Arts website.
