“Behind the Mask” exhibit and workshop highlight professional identity

Professional identity formation is the focus of a new gallery exhibit and workshop at the Penn State College of Art and Architecture’s Borland Project Space in University Park.

“Behind the Mask: The Formation of Professional Identity” exhibit will take place through Sept. 27.

This free, self-guided exhibit features an estimated 30-50 masks created by this year’s new faculty in the College of Arts and Architecture and the Eberly College of Science, as well as medical students. A mask-making workshop is scheduled on Wednesday, Sept. 19 from noon to 1 p.m.

“We are using mask making as a means to encourage students to think about their sense of self in the lane of professional development,” said Dr. Mark Stephens, professor of family and community medicine and master educator at Penn State College of Medicine in University Park. “A healthy sense of professional identity creates transparency, authenticity and integrity, which leads to a sound doctor-patient relationship and better outcomes for patient care.”

Mask-making as a professional development tool is a natural fit within Penn State College of Medicine’s curriculum and core values, Stephens said. He has taught mask-making workshops to freshmen and sophomore medical students at the College of Medicine’s University Park campus for the past two years.

“As faculty, we have found that around the third year of medical school, we start seeing signs of burnout and stress in students,” Stephens said. “There is a lot of internal dissonance and stress between what students may be feeling internally and struggling with and what they feel they need to project externally, namely confidence and knowledge.”

This year, more than 150 Penn State medical students will participate in the course. Nationally, several medical schools have introduced visual arts into medical student development and curriculum, including the University of Michigan Medical School at Ann Arbor.

The “Behind the Mask: The Formation of Professional Identity” exhibit is open to the public during gallery hours. To participate in the mask-making workshop, RSVP to Stephens at mstephens3@pennstatehealth.psu.edu.

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