RING OUT YOUR DEAD >>>
For the ninth year, Tacoma Art Museum hosts a Dia de los Muertos Festival.
Day of the Dead, ya'll.
This may or may not surprise you, but the Day of the Dead Festival at TAM brings in the largest crowd of the year.
"We expect thousands this Sunday," TAM Executive Director Stepheanie Stebich said last night at the Art at Work Tacoma opening party.
Despite the name of the holiday, it and this festival are all about honoring life - attendees will be greeted by much color, chances to make their own arts and crafts, life-affirming mariachi music and installations.
The festival kicked off Oct, 21 and runs through Sunday, which is the day Dia de los Muertos fills the museum from top to bottom with sugar skulls, altars and more Dead fun. Nov. 4 the museum is free and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. That's right, free. You have no excuse not to go.
If it sounds macabre, it's not really. Skulls made of sugar are a perfectly normal way to connect with your loved ones on the other side. You can even decorate your own.
A tapete- a sand painting by artist Fulgencio Lazo - graces the museum's lobby; the tapete centers on marigolds, a central image of Day of the Dead. There are also 27 ofrendas altars - designed by the community - in TAM's upstairs halls.
But wait ... there's more!
Get your groove on with live music by Mariachi Ayutla or relax and watch Aztec dance troupe Grupo Quetzalcoatl de Olympia.
Party on, El Gartho.
TACOMA ART MUSEUM, SUNDAY, NOV. 4, 10 A.M. TO 4 P.M., FREE, 1701 PACIFIC AVE., TACOMA, 253.272.4258