New self portrait exhibit aims to connect strangers from behind their masks

It's been months since many of us have really seen strangers

Grocery stores, restaurants - sometimes even street corners - remain full of masked faces.

Which means we're missing something, some level of connection with each other.

Those missing connections led Gloucester's Cape Ann Museum to send out packets of paper, crayons and oil paints to residents of the region, old and young, inviting them to a make-your-own art project: self-portraits.

Those portraits are now on display in a series called "Quilted Together: An Exhibit of Community Portraits."

Oliver Barker, director of the Cape Ann Museum, joins us to talk about the exhibit and the inspiration for it.