The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Mask project featured in parade
The Lorain Arts Council is hosting a mask workshop to construct masks that will be featured in the Lorain International Festival Parade on June 25.
The Arts Council welcomed Lorain native Kenneth Melendez, who is a master mask maker and is leading the workshops that started June 5 and will conclude June 16.
Based in Ponce, Puerto Rico, Melendez started his career in Lorain before relocating to the island to study mask making and has developed a global reputation as a musician, artist and cultural ambassador for the art of mask making.
Melendez has travelled around the world leading workshops and representing Puerto Rico in international mask making competitions in Europe and South America.
On the opening evening of the workshop, Melendez demonstrated how to make a traditional Puerto Rican vejigante mask and encouraged attendees to unleash their creativity in creating a character through their mask which represents their identity.
“When creating masks, this is something so, so neat because it gives you the opportunity to be artistic in the way that you can go off and create whatever it is that you see or what you feel,” Melendez said.
As the workshop progresses, participants will get to develop their own unique style and add representations to their masks which incorporate a number of different mask making styles.
Lorain Arts Council Executive Director Antonio Barrios said they first heard of Melendez about four years ago when he was in Lorain conducting a workshop at El Centro de Servicios Sociales Inc., 2800 Pearl Ave. in Lorain, and decided to bring him back to Lorain to conduct the workshop.
The mask project was conceived as a way to use art to create unity in the city of Lorain and to use art for practical purposes beyond abstract expression, Barrios said.
“Some people think arts are abstract without practical value, so that’s where the idea for the workshop came into play,” he said.
The mask workshop will take place from 6-9 p.m., nightly, until June 16.
Anyone interested in participating is asked to contact Barrios at 440320-0295