BIAIA Press Release: “Unmasking Brain Injury” pop-up art exhibit opens Dec. 20

Eileen, a brain injury survivor who lives in Ankeny, painted her mask pink, orange, blue and purple.

Divided into bright blocks of color, Eileen’s mask also features the words “happy,” “sad,” and “Mom.”

“My mask represents my different emotions that I go through,” she wrote, in a statement accompanying the art project. “The purple side is where I sustained my injury and it is to support the survivors of brain injury. The blue is for my grumpy days. Pink represents happy days that keep me moving! Orange represents my mom, who was an active advocate for brain injury.”

Eileen’s mask is like many that will be on display beginning December 20 at Opportunities Unlimited, 3439 Glen Oaks Boulevard, in Sioux City, as part of a pop-up art exhibit called “Unmasking Brain Injury.” The event, hosted by the Brain Injury Alliance of Iowa (BIAIA) in association with the national Unmasking Brain Injury organization, exhibits a number of masks created by people living with brain injuries throughout Iowa.

Opportunities Unlimited will host a public opening reception on Wednesday, December 20, from 10 to 11:30 a.m., including a brief program. Refreshments will be served.

Following the opening, the art exhibit will be open to the public in the Opportunities Unlimited Community Center, which is open 8am-5pm, Monday-Friday.

“Every mask tells a story, and each one is unique, just like brain injuries,” BIAIA executive director Geoffrey Lauer says. “The idea is to promote awareness of the prevalence of brain injury, while giving individuals another way to communicate with others about their experience of living with a brain injury.”

Brain injury is sometimes called a “silent” or “invisible” disability, because it is not always obvious to others when an individual has one. According to the Centers for Disease Control, an estimated 2.4 million children and adults in the U.S. sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and another 795,000 individuals sustain an acquired brain injury (ABI) from non-traumatic causes each year. Currently, more than 3.1 million children and adults in the U.S. live with a lifelong disability as a result of TBI and 6.4 million have a disability due to stroke.

“This translates into more than 95,000 Iowans living with disability from acquired brain injury,” Lauer says.

To create the Unmasking Brain Injury exhibit, BIAIA has distributed papier mâché masks and paint kits to participants across Iowa, inviting them to express their experiences, the recovery process, or their emotions after brain injury. Each participant also writes a brief statement explaining his or her work, which is displayed alongside the mask.

The mask exhibit has been traveling statewide and will be displayed through January 4 at Opportunities Unlimited, which offers comprehensive rehabilitation therapy and services to children and adults who have sustained a traumatic brain injury, a spinal cord injury, or other physical disability. While the exhibit is visiting their facility in Sioux City, Opportunities Unlimited will also host a mask-making workshop for its clients with brain injuries, and those masks will join the collection for future exhibitions.

Organizations interested in hosting a future exhibition of the Unmasking Brain Injury art project—or organizations or individuals who wish to create their own masks—may submit a request at www.unmaskingbraininjury.org.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all BIAIA-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact BIAIA in advance at 319-466-7455 or by email at info@biaia.org.