Visiting artist Dennis McNett will lead a series of mask-making workshops as a component of the International Gullah Geechee African Diaspora (IGGAD) Conference hosted by Coastal Carolina University Feb. 24-26. The three-hour workshops will take place Monday-Friday, Feb. 21-25, from 9 a.m. to noon and 1-4 p.m., in the Edwards Building printmaking studio, room 139. The workshops are free, open to the public, and include all instruction and materials. Reservations are required, and attendance at each workshop is limited to 12 community members.

The workshops will culminate in a processional as a component of Gullah Geechee Community Day in downtown Conway on Saturday, Feb. 26. McNett will lead the processional with a number of his life-sized works, and workshop participants will follow, donning their masks. The events are sponsored by the CCU Department of Visual Arts, the Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts, and the Charles Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies.

McNett’s involvement as a visiting artist at CCU this semester includes an exhibit that is on display from Thursday, Feb. 24, to Thursday, March 24, at the Rebecca Randall Bryan Gallery, located in the Edwards Building, and a lecture on community and collaboration at the IGGAD conference, in addition to the public workshops and processional.

McNett’s wood carvings, collages, sculpture, murals, and installation works, as well as his iconic makerspace, Wolfbat Studios, are world-renowned for their incorporation of mythology, wildlife, religious symbolism, and elements of pop culture. He has exhibited his work internationally as well as in the window displays of Barney’s in New York City and on dozens of Antihero skateboards.

For more information on the workshops, contact Meghan O’Connor, assistant professor of printmaking in the Department of Visual Arts, at moconnor@coastal.edu or 843-349-6948. For more information on the IGGAD conference, contact Alli Crandell, conference coordinator and interim director of the Joyner Institute, at acrandell@coastal.edu or 843-349-2947.