The exhibit, "Masks: The Spirit of Michoacan," opens Saturday, Oct. 19, at the museum and runs through April 13. The museum is located at 241 S. Anaheim Blvd. in Anaheim and is open on Wednesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. Horta will demonstrate how he makes the elaborate and colorful masks during two appearances at Cal State Northridge.

The first will take place at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 22, in the Sierra Quad in the center of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge. His second appearance will be at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 23, in the Art Design Center¹s courtyard at the north end of the campus.

Horta was born in Tocuaro, Michoacan, where he and his family were small-scale farmers raising corn, beans and wheat for self-consumption and sale. As an adolescent, he wanted to participate in the pastoral play performed annually in Tocuaro, Mexico, for the Feast of La Candelaria. Unable to purchase a mask, he tried his hand at carving one out of wood. Someone approached him after the fiesta and asked if he wanted to sell the mask he created. He gave up any plans of going to school and began what has been a 40-year passion for woodcarving.

"The work of Horta exists within the ancient forms and traditions of mask making yet he has found the room for innovation and elaboration, which distinguishes his work in significant ways," said Kirkton, chair of CSUN¹s journalism department.

"The masks are both ancient and contemporary. They are Mexican and international. They are Juan Horta¹s and Michoacan¹s," Kirkton said. "The masks are personal accomplishments but embrace our shared experience. They are art and history ­ from Horta¹s hands and our collective imagination."

For more information, call Kirkton at (818) 677-3135 or the Anaheim Museum at (714) 778-3301.

California State University, Northridge has more than 31,500 full- and part-time students and offers 59 bachelor's and 41 master's degrees as well as 28 education credential programs. Founded in 1958, it is the only four-year university in the San Fernando Valley and the third largest in the 23-campus CSU system. The Western Association of Schools and Colleges recently said CSUN "stands as a model to other public urban institutions of higher education."

(Pictures of mask available upon request.)