Wearing Their Work: Mask Parade Showcases Student Art

If you see a parade of brightly colored extravagant masks being worn by students on campus during the tail end of the spring semester, it could only be Professor Sachiko Akiyama’s Introductory Sculpture class. A project visible not only to the students' classmates but the entire student population, the mask assignment in Akiyama's class allows students to problem solve, collaborate, and have a standout piece of art displayed on campus.

“I first started this project during the pandemic when everybody was wearing masks and thought, ‘How can we be separated from each other but do something that was really joyful and celebratory?”’ Akiyama says, “and it was a mask, but it wasn’t one I had negative associations with.” She began gathering inspiration for this project in 2020 by creating her own sculpture—a life-sized human nose, “because I thought it would be funny,” she said.

At the end of the project, students showcase their masks in a campus-wide parade. The students don't hold their masks, they put them on. The cardboard masks are larger-than-life and wearable, allowing the students to transform into their creation for a walk around campus. Akiyama hopes that one day students will group together to take on the challenge of each creating part of an animal to make one extravagant being, not just a mask.

This semester, junior fine arts major Aiden Brown made a T-Rex mask named Rexy, an homage to the Jurassic Park T-Rex. She decided on a dinosaur for her mask because of the freedom and creativity that comes from their long ago extinction. At the right angle (to avoid the teeth), her dinosaur mask is even huggable. “Sometimes, I feel like I'm not enough to deserve what I take up,” she says. “But sculpture unapologetically uses space and materials to show something interesting and serve as an expressive outlet for the artist.”

“In Intro to Sculpture I really try to emphasize responding to the process rather than making a plan from the start,” Akiyama says. “You might have an idea but when you actually try it in real life the materials are going to fight back.” She credits a lot of the valuable lessons from the class to creative problem solving, responding to the moment, and trusting the process. Students also noted how they gained useful time management skills from this class.

Since Introductory Sculpture is part of UNH’s Discovery program, the class can be taken by students from any major as a fine & performing arts discovery credit. Ella Vennard, a senior education major, made a wolf mask to tie in with a theme in her friend group. “This class stands out from other classes I have taken at UNH because it is so hands-on and unique,” she says. “I have learned, been challenged, and leaned on others in my class like I never have.”

Another project in the class includes creating art from found objects such as garbage or recyclables. Akiyama also came up with the idea for this project during the pandemic when students were at home and had to use materials there. “People would rip their Barbie dolls in half and find all these other really interesting things,” she says. Their final project involves making molds filled with concrete and combining them with wood and metal so students are able to learn how to use the bandsaw and other tools.

“After elementary school, the opportunity to walk in a parade does not come up as often!” Vennard says. “It was such a fun moment of my college experience.” 

This summer, the masks made by this year's students will be on display in the Dimond Library.

(Editor's note: The images featured in this story are from the 2025 parade).