by Amanda Bertholf // Spring 2012
We miss out on a lot of scenery when we only train our gaze at eye level. Do so as you stroll along 51st Street, and you’ll miss the two giant clay masks that adorn the patio and fire pit adjacent to Swinney Recreation Center—so look up. Designed to represent tragedy, in their heyday the masks directed smoke up from the fire pit and out of their mouths. Created in the 1940s by UKC Art Instructor Thomas B. Thomas, the masks are the remnants of University Playhouse. Thomas created the masks using clay dug up from the groundbreaking for Cockefair Hall.