"Faces of the Future" Opens Splash 2000

Middle and high school art students worked with their art teachers to create more than 700 masks now on display at the Long Beach Public Library. "Millennium Masks--Faces of the Future" runs through February 17. Artist Deanna Korda created the massive mask installation with the cooperation of art instructors from the Long Beach Unified School District. Students made sculptural masks expressing how they would like to see themselves and their world in the 21st century. Some used half of the face to look back at and trace roots from the past millennium. The Millennium Masks exhibit was produced by the Public Corporation for the Arts--the nonprofit arts council for the Long Beach region. The installation is the first of a series known as Splash 2000, the citywide millennium celebration. Participating young artists include students from Cabrillo, Jordan, Millikan, Poly, Wilson and Reid high schools; and Bancroft, DeMille, Hoover, Marshall, Newcomb, Rogers, Stanford, Stephens and Washington middle schools.