Making the Most of Masks

As a hallmark of the COVID-19 pandemic, face masks are something that we’ve all become intimately familiar with. Masks have become the latest addition to the mental checklist of everything we need when we leave the house: keys, wallet, cellphone, mask. How many times have you had to turn back halfway through the parking lot of the grocery store because you left your mask in the car? 

After a year, these elastic-bound coverings have become our own personal protective barriers—the air-permeable window between us and a world of contagion, or, more accurately, the shield between our contagious selves and the world. Even a number of Worcester characters have taken to stopping the spread by donning a mask (though we really do wish the turtle boy would remember to cover his nose).

Masks have touched our community in a way that few could have anticipated during this pandemic. In this exhibit, we’ll explore just how Worcester has been making the most of masks.