More than an appealing "exotic" character to replicate

To address the problem of students running out of steam during the sculpture part of mask making Multimask has been developed to enable students to tell a visually interesting story with big impact, but with less mess and energy waste. Multimask frees up classroom time for in-depth studies in the curriculum of the diverse cultural & sociopolitical contexts that produce mask making. Patty Bode's stellar article featured in Rethinking Schools Online about making Puerto Rican Vejigante Masks in class redefines multicultural visual arts education: http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/17_01/Puer171.shtml

The Vejigante (bay-he-GAHN-tay) is a fantastic, colourful character introduced into the carnival arts hundreds of years ago, and is a classic example of the blending of African, Spanish, and Caribbean influences in Puerto Rican culture.