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Wednesday, October 29, 2008

TAM Offers Free Salute to "Dia de los Muertos" November 2 at Community Festival



What a thrill to discover that a full scale festival with all the trimmings shown here saluting "Dia de los Muertos" at the Tacoma Art Museum will be mounted this coming Sunday, November 2, from 12:00 noon to 6:00 p.m.

The FREE celebration is geared for family members of all ages and features live music, dancers, art, food and fun as a presentation by Centro Latino and the Tacoma Art Museum, with support from Proyecto MoLE-Movimiento Latino Estudiantil.




Above left: Tapete (sand painting) designed by Fulgencio Lazo in the lobby at Tacoma Art Museum sets the stage for the free festivities saluting "Dia de los Muertos". Photos copyright 2008 by Mizu Sugimura.



The simply gorgeous and compelling tapete (sand painting) by artist Fulgencio Lazo, multiple artist assistants and student volunteers which covers a good part of the main floor at the entry to the museum is a stunning and compelling labor of love.

The highly vibrant and radiant work meant to honor those friends and relatives who have died is usually created in the cemetery with donated sand brought in by loved ones.

The design is inscribed on a base of one inch of sand and then colored with powdered poster paint. Visitors are sure to be both impressed and touched by the clever and creative usage of ordinary materials.

In a period of economic downsizing, the displays serve not only as a different perspective of death but an equally eloquent and gentle reminder to those of us in the outside communities that it will not be the lavish spending which shows others our love for those who have passed.

But instead it's the caring energy that we living bring to salute their memory that enables them to stay alive within our minds and hearts.





Below: Partial view of memorial altars featured at the Tacoma Art Museum's exhibit honoring "Dia de los Muertos". Photo copyright 2008 by Mizu Sugimura.

1 comment:

Stephanie Frieze said...

What a wonderful post and great information, Mizu! I shared it with my children this morning and hope that we can go and take it in. We like things we can do for FREE and the arts are always food for the soul!