Día de los Muertos Exhibit Festival launches final run

For the past 10 years, the Arizona State University Museum of Anthropology has played host to a vibrant community-centered Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Festival Exhibit. This year, the Tempe campus gallery will be filled with traditional altars, cajitas (small, traveling altars) and artwork celebrating this unique holiday and its 10th anniversary at the museum. 

!Que Vivan los Muertos! brings together prominent Chicana/o artists, community members and ASU students in the creation of highly inventive and elaborate altarpieces reflecting a broad array of individual styles, personal meanings and socially shared concerns. An important spiritual celebration among Mexican and Mexican-American communities, the Day of the Dead festival merges ancient Aztec and Roman Catholic rituals and beliefs. Visitors are encouraged to bring offerings, like notes, photographs, candles, flowers and other small items for the public altar in remembrance of loved ones.

The exhibit will run from Oct. 12 to Jan. 8 with an opening celebration on Oct. 29 from 6 to 9 p.m., beginning with a lecture, Searching for Origins: Day of the Dead in Colonial Mexico, by Dr. Carmen King. Admission is free. The Museum of Anthropology is in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, located at the corner of Tyler and Cady Malls on the ASU Tempe campus. Visitor parking is available in the nearby Fulton Center garage on College Avenue, or in metered spaces around campus.

The 10th Annual Dia de los Muertos Festival Exhibit is a joint collaboration among the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, ASU Museum of Anthropology, CALACA Cultural Center, Inc. and the community.

For more details, call the museum at (480) 965-6224 or visit http://asuma.asu.edu.