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Dia de los Muertos is close to Halloween, but it has none of the Western obsession with scariness and dripping blood. Occurring Nov. 1-2 (All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day in the Christian calendar), Day of the Dead is a joyful way to honor the dead through artistic expression such as papier-maché skulls and skeletons, cut paper hangings, decorated sugar skulls and flowers.
In partnership with Centro Latino and Proyecto MoL, TAM offers the biggest Day of the Dead celebration in town that also honors those artistic traditions.
For this year’s celebration – TAM’s seventh – artists have been commissioned to create two tapetes (sand paintings) that fill the floor of the lobby. Upstairs are nearly 20 altars honoring passed loved ones created by community groups and individuals. It’s a tradition that unites people as the ofrendas (altars) often honor well-known victims, military members or entire segments of the population.
Throughout the day Sunday will be face painting, teen activities, a market in the lobby and plaza, sugar skull decorating in the art classroom upstairs, bottle-cap magnet making in the studio and a Dia de los Muertos video in the resource center.
Visitors also will have a chance to check out (for free) the newly opened exhibit “Folk Treasures of Mexico.” It offers about 80 works of Mexican folk art from the Rockefeller Collection lent by the San Antonio Museum of Art: 8-foot-tall papier maché devils, candelabras, tin paintings, miniature wooden toys and more.
Rosemary Ponnekanti: 253-597-8568, rosemary.ponnekanti@thenewstribune.com
Festival schedule
12:15 p.m. Animation and altar videos from First Creek Middle School.
1 p.m. Live music from Tacoma’s Mariachi Ayutla.
2 p.m. Traditional Aztec dance from Mexico Tlahui.
3 p.m. Artist Fulgencio Lazo discusses the tapete.
The festival is 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday at 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma. For more information, call 253-272-4258 or go to tacomaartmuseum.org.
