BRATTLEBORO — The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) will present an animal mask-making workshop with UNH art instructor and artist Sachiko Akiyama and Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center (BEEC) naturalist Patti Smith on Saturday, April 30, from 2 to 5 p.m. at the River Gallery School in Brattleboro.
Smith will talk briefly at the start of the workshop about animals in the local area who are at risk, largely due to climate change. Akiyama will then lead participants in making animal masks, using templates based on Smith's list of at-risk animals.
The workshop is presented in connection with “Sachiko Akiyama: Through Lines,” an exhibit on view at BMAC through June 12.
The exhibit consists of wooden sculptures that draw on a wide range of influences, including Akiyama's Japanese American heritage, personal experiences, family history, and dreams, as well as Egyptian funerary sculptures, medieval Christian wood carvings, and work by sculptors Constantin Brâncuşi and Anne Chu. The exhibit is supported in part by Japan Foundation New York.
Akiyama has exhibited in the United States and abroad, including solo exhibitions at the Akinofuku Museum in Japan and the University of Maine Museum of Art, and group exhibitions at the Kohler Arts Center, Smack Mellon, and Field Projects. Her work is in the permanent collections of deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park and Gordon College.
Smith has worked at BEEC since its founding in 1991. Those who have read her “View from Heifer Hill” columns know that some of her best friends are rodents, and they will be acquainted with Willow the beaver, Burdock the porcupine, and the other wild creatures she has befriended and cared for. She is a licensed wildlife rehabilitator.
The workshop is $45, or $40 for BMAC members. Space is limited. Register at brattleboromuseum.org or 802-257-0124, ext. 101.