Ancient Ofrenda: Elements of an Altar
9th Annual Dia de los Muertos Festival
Presented by Jennifer Clugston and Pauliasi Fanaika
Arizona State University Museum of Anthropology
Tempe, Arizona
October 27, 2008—January 23, 2009
The ASU Museum of Anthropology invites the public to the opening celebration of its 9th Annual Día de los Muertos Festival Exhibit October 30, 2008, 5 to 7 p.m., in the lobby of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change building on the Tempe campus. The event will feature music and food and is free of charge.
For the past nine years, the museum has played host to a vibrant community-centered Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Festival Exhibit. Traditionally, the museum has featured a gallery filled with individual altars. This year, the gallery will be transformed into one altar through individual works of art. Each piece of art in the exhibit will represent one of the many offerings that compose a traditional altar. Emphasis will be placed on the four elements (earth, wind, water and fire) found on traditional altars that tie this celebration to its Aztecan roots.
Ancient Ofrenda will bring together artists from the Chicano/a, university and Valley communities in the creation of an innovative communal space, emphasizing the elements of a traditional altar. Though their subjects are ancient, artists will work in a variety of traditional and contemporary media, incorporating personal and symbolic imagery into their work. Visitors are encouraged to bring offerings for the dead, which will become part of the altar.
Artists included: Cristina Acosta, Marco Albarrán, Mary-Beth Buesge, Peter Bugg, Jenna Bustamante, Ralph Cordova, Juliet De LaRosa, Susan Elizalde-Holler, Cris Escobar, Antonio Estrada, Ruben Galicia, Francisco Garcia, Genaro Garcia + Luciano Garcia Michael, Peter Goin, Juan Granados, Zarco Guerrero, Bob Hale, Katie Hovencamp, Leticia Huerta, Mary-Irene + Caroline Kinsley, Steve Long, Esperanza Lopez, Jose Loza, Heriberto Luna, Liliana Madero, Toby Morfin, MaryNuñez/DeLira, Jaxinta Parra + Friends, Cynthia Pesselato, Micheal Pesselato, Ramon Ramirez, Jenny Reyes-Heath, Erika Ricketts, Robert Rivera, Silvia Rodriguez, Consuelo Underwood, Guillermo Valenzuela, Susana Valenzuela, Linda Vallejo, Rosie Villegas-Smith, René Westbrook, Larry Yanez, Yan Sheng Zhang, The Students of Santa Maria Middle School + their Visual Arts Teacher Christi Jones, The Students of Tesseract School + their Visual Arts Teacher Barbara Perez
Press release