University of Louisville students, faculty and staff are contributing to several public exhibits in Louisville related to the seasonal observance.
The Hispanic holiday El Dia de los Muertos marks a social ritual of families remembering their dead and celebrating the cycle of life and death with friends and relatives. The tradition usually features personalized altars made to commemorate the honorees.
Altars at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft and Louisville Science Center will be among the downtown Louisville venues featured 5 p.m.-10 p.m. Nov. 4 during the First Friday Gallery Hop.
Here’s an overview of various exhibits organized with help from Latin American and Latino studies, fine arts and physics students and the Center for Arts and Culture Partnerships and a contest and exhibits organized by the Spanish section of the classical and modern languages department:
- UofL’s Ekstrom Library, Spanish language students display decorated altars in 10th annual contest and more than 100 kites, sugar skulls and other projects (Nov.1-7). Students will be available to discuss their projects and share information at library tables from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 2.
- UofL’s Schneider Hall lobby, tribute to satirical Mexican illustrator and artist Jose Guadalupe Posada; fine arts students in John Whitesell’s printmaking class will display images of skulls and skeletons (through Nov. 6)
- Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, altars to legacies of civic leaders Anne Braden and Woodford Porter and UofL faculty members Lilialyce Akers and David Hershberg (through Nov. 15)
Also, outside the KMAC, 715 W. Main St., during the Nov. 4 First Friday Gallery Hop, UofL fine arts faculty members Mary Carothers and Philip Miller and their classes will display a truck painted with Day of the Dead motifs and fitted with a pinhole camera function.
- Louisville Science Center, altar to honor inventor Benjamin Franklin (through Nov. 15)