Get into the spirit of Días de Muertos (Days of the Dead) by joining us for two related events.
First, come celebrate Días de Muertos (Days of the Dead) on Saturday, November 9, in Crosby Ballroom A, between 1:15 and 2:40 pm, by making your own calaca. Drop by for ten to thirty minutes or so for our Calaca Art Workshop, where you can create a beautiful two-dimensional or three-dimensional craft that honors the dearly departed. Artist-in-residence Xavier Cázares Cortéz will guide you on how to make your own calaca— a colloquial Mexican Spanish name for skull or skeleton (usually human), commonly used for decoration during the Mexican Days of the Dead festivals. Try your hand at it! No experience necessary. This free, drop-in art workshop will provide all materials. First come, first served while supplies last.
Then, a little later, please join us on Saturday, Nov. 9, at 4 pm in Crosby Ballroom A for a conversation with artist-in-residence Xavier Cázares Cortéz. Participants will tour the onsite ofrenda (altar) constructed by the artist for our conference. Participants will be invited to read aloud the names of dearly departed family/friends. We will then go outside to celebrate with food & with music by Inland Empire Indie rock band Porkboii.
SoCal-based artist and PAMLA 2024 Artist-in-Residence Xavier Cázares Cortéz has been featured in solo and group exhibitions at venues including UCR ARTS, The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture, Centro Cultural de Tijuana (CeCut), Vincent Price Art Museum, Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at University of Notre Dame, Monterey Museum of Art, Plaza de La Raza, Fullerton Museum of Art, Cal State San Bernardino, and Palm Springs Art Museum, among others. His work has been represented by commercial art galleries such as Denise Robérge and Imago Galleries in Palm Desert, and Patricia Correia Gallery in Santa Monica. Cortéz has also collaborated as a performer for 25 years with Chicano artist Harry Gamboa Jr., in scores of street art performances and publications. He has been employed and held numerous artist-in-residencies that combined his art practice with educational programming, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art , Los Angeles (MOCA), the Getty Foundation, The California Arts Project (TCAP), Chaffey College, and Palm Springs Art Museum, where he co-founded and co-produced their popular Day of the Dead Community Day beginning in 1994. Cortéz has been a lecturer in Art History and Film at the California State University, San Bernardino, Palm Desert Campus and UCR Extension. Cortéz’s artwork is in many private and public collections including Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin, Laguna Art Museum, Self-Help Graphics, Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), City of Indio, and the Gerald Buck Collection.