Make your own Día de los Muertos-inspired face mask with two local artists, Elvira DS Monteforte and Dolores Altin. Paint and decorate your mask while learning about this festive and colourful two-day holiday is celebrated annually in Mexico and around the world. This holiday is believed to reunite the living and the dead through ofrendas as this is believed that the dead return to visit their friends and relatives. Altars are decorated with bright flowers, photos, and the favourite foods of those being honoured.

After the hands-on workshop, enjoy a self-guided Día de los Muertos-themed tour of the Multiversity Galleries.

Mark your calendars for the last Sunday of each month for our new family program series—Culture Club at MOA— which focuses on active, participatory learning about diverse cultural perspectives and ways of knowing. This monthly family program features an experiential learning opportunity with storytelling, arts-based activities, and self-guided tours specially designed for young visitors.

Limited supplies; first come, first serve.

Bios

Elvira DS Montefort is a painter and artist from Mexico City who has achieved recognition as a mural artist. She has been in Canada since 1998, where she raised her two daughters and is now re-emerging as an artist in the community with the time to dedicate to her painting. Elvira recently completed a commission to paint 1 of 12 Salmon sculptures that were displayed throughout the City of Coquitlam for their 100th anniversary. She also completed an artist in residency program with the City of Port Coquitlam, to engage the community in transforming recycled materials into creative new art objects. Some of her painted objects have been shown in galleries as well as outdoors as public art. Elvira believes that her public art pieces raise the awareness of the abundance of cultural ‘trash’ and fosters a deeper appreciation for sustainability, beauty and uniqueness of place through community dialogue and participation.

Dolores Altin is a landscape architect and public artist with a deep appreciation for placemaking and how we experience our public spaces. Since 1998 her career has explored various facets of landscape design, community planning and placemaking. She has extensive background in engaging children and adults through the design process and connecting people to the issues in their community. Dolores is a true collaborator and interested in working with others to create public art as an expression of the relationship between culture and nature and to inspire a deeper appreciation for environmental sustainability and art through participation, dialogue and awareness. Throughout her career, she has often worked alongside artists and has brought environmental artists such as Buster Simpson into Vancouver’s public lecture forum.

Culture Club is made possible by the generous support of UBC Campus + Community Planning.