Mask making workshop to enhance Carnival product

Dominica’s Carnival product is expected to be enhanced through a mask making workshop which ended at the Old Mill Cultural Center last weekend.

Twenty-two adults and 12 children took part in the workshop.

“This workshop here in mass making is part of that overall strategy to enhance our carnival product in Dominica,” Cultural Project Officer, Gregory Rabess said. “This workshop helps to enhance the traditional and the contemporary aspect of the carnival, make the costumes even more creative, more esthetically beautiful and we are certainly looking forward to see the results of some of these labors in next year’s carnival.”

The workshop was conducted by La Maison de Leopold tutors Jean-Luc TOUSSAINT and Vanessa GUY from Martinique and was organized by Kaz Kweyol Productions (KKP) and sponsored by the Dominica Festivals Committee, the Department of Culture, the Dominica Broadcasting Corporation, Kaz Kweyol Productions, and J Grimner, who hosted Jean-Luc Toussaint and his family.

Rabess said a lot of the materials used during the workshop were recycled, adding that masks links Dominica back to its African traditions which “we have lost in some respects over the years.”

Meantime, Anita Bully of Kaz Kweyol Productions said sensay costumes these days are accompanied by foreign masks that are normally used at Halloween and because of sensay’s traditional nature, halloween masks are “just not the right mix for the costume.”

She stated that the designs were all different and extremely colorful and intricate, combining indigenous materials and fibers with colorful papier mache finish.

The workshop targeted artist, costume builders and designers and other interested persons.

Certificates of Participation were distributed to all who took part in the workshop.

The masks can be viewed at the Old Mill Cultural Center Art Gallery from April 13-17, 2015.

As a result of interest from students and parents, the Cultural Division will be holding classes for both adults and children in Mask Making in the upcoming semester.