Dancing with Life: Mexican Masks

February 14 – May 17, 2026

---

Explore the rich festival culture of Mexico through four dozen historic and contemporary masks from the collection of the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. Dancing with Life: Mexican Masks reveals the individual artists and dancers behind the masks and invites visitors to witness danzas as expressions of contemporary living culture.

---

Daily Admission

---

About the Exhibition

Dancing with Life invites visitors to explore the rich festival culture of Mexico through historic and contemporary masks drawn from the collection of the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane, Washington. Centered on the Michoacán region of Mexico, the exhibition brings together 50 hand-carved and vividly painted masks alongside five complete sets of danza regalia adorned with beadwork, ribbons, and other lavish embellishments.

Across Mexico, mask making is a vibrant and playful art form deeply rooted in community celebrations of religious holidays. Worn by dancers in lively performances known as danzas, these masks portray devils and holy men, animals and mythical creatures, celebrities and politicians, and recognizable figures from everyday life. Danzas are performed to tell both old and new stories, and the dancers wear masks made by artists to share and give life to these stories.

From fearsome, elaborately painted diablos to the gentle faces of kindly elders, the masks celebrate the artistry and creativity of the mask makers and their communities, which are enlivened by the sights and sounds of danzas and fiestas. With humor, whimsy, and subversion, mask makers respond to the social, spiritual, and political circumstances of everyday life through this engaging art form. Symbols and scripts drawn from religious narratives, folklore, politics, and popular culture intertwine to explore, dramatize, and express ideas in both humorous and meaningful ways.

The exhibition is enriched by contextual videos featuring mask makers and dancers, as well as bilingual interpretive text in Spanish and English.

---

Lead Sponsor

---

Dancing with Life: Mexican Masks was curated by Dr. Pavel Shlossberg and organized by Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, Spokane, WA. Its tour is organized by International Arts & Artists, Washington, DC.