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Harvard University
MLA Art History
1996-2000
Clark University
Masters of Art History,Clark University (2000)
1976-1980
Maskmaker/Arts Educator, designing custom masks & programs - corporate, educational, & private events.
Fullbright Scholar and award-winning artist, Eric Bornstein founded Behind the Mask Studio in 1990, and specializes in mask theater programs, corporate event planning, arts education, custom made masks and costumes. Eric has studied with masters Agung Suardana in Bali, and Donato Sartori in Italy. He received his MLA in Fine Arts along with the Thomas Small prize from Harvard University, and a BFA from Clark University. Eric was recently awarded a Fulbright grant to revive the art of giant puppet effigies in Jamaica. His masks have appeared recently in Company One's Shockheaded Peter (nominated for Eliot Norton award/won IRNE award), Liar's & Believers' Talk to Strangers, Gamm Theatre's Morality Play, Boston Ballet's Nutcracker, Boston Lyric Opera's Madama Butterfly, Peabody Museum at Harvard, Puppet Showplace Theatre, the 31st Cambridge River Festival, Contemporary Theater of Boston’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Performance Lab’s Le Cabaret Grimm, Babes in Boinkland's The Slutcracker; A Burlesque, Underground Railway Theater’s Life of Galileo, and the Harvard Yiddish Players’ Shulamis. Eric was part of the team that recently won an award for Excellence in Production Design at the New York Musical Theatre Festival 2012 for his masks in Le Cabaret Grimm. Behind The Mask has created masks and promotional events for Bethesda Softworks to celebrate award-winning video games Dishonored and Elder Scrolls/Skyrim. Over the last 30 years Eric’s masked characters have appeared in a variety of venues and the subject of numerous media features. In June his work with Gamm Theatre will be featured in American Theater Magazine. Behind the Mask creations were a highlight of Boston’s First Night celebration for 15 years. His masks have also appeared at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum, the Fuller Craft Museum, the Kennedy Library/Museum, the Boston Lyric Opera, the Boston Ballet, the Society of Arts & Crafts (Newbury Street), The Peabody/Essex Museum, King Richard's Faire, and Revels. Recent features include The Boston Globe, The Phoenix, NPR radio, and Artscope Magazine. He currently teaches classes in making and performing masks, and offers performances and residencies to schools throughout the state through Young Audiences of Massachusetts. “Boston’s preeminent mask maker”…”a man of many talents” and his masks as “phantasmagoric,” “magnificent,” “Stunning, finely crafted…first-rate,” “eerie/enchanting,” “masterful,”and “gorgeous.” Please visit www.behindthemask.org