MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM
- CALAVERAS -
The Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) has collaborated with the community to celebrate Día de los Muertos as part of their Family Sundays program for over 25 years. in 2024, as part of a new initiative thanks to Kohl’s Cares, Milwaukee-based artist Whitney Salgado was invited to design a project to bring to four elementary schools: La Escuela Fratney, Prince of Peace School, Bruce Guadalupe Elementary School, and Carollton Elementary School.
Each school worked with Salgado for one day to embellish large paper mâché armatures of sugar skulls with tissue paper squares. In total eight skulls, including an additional skull created as an example by Whitney and the Youth & Family Team at MAM, were displayed at the Kohl's Family Sundays: Día de los Muertos celebration at the Museum on Sunday, October 20, 2024.
After the Día de los Muertos celebration at the MAM, the calaveras made their way to Latino Arts, Inc. in Walker's Point. Here they became a part of their Day of the Dead Ofrendas Exhibition. On view from October 23rd to Nov 15th, Latino Arts's 2024 Día de los Muertos Exhibit will center on expanding our community's understanding of this deeply cultural and historic celebration.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Sugar Skulls, or calaveras, are common Mexican ornamental gifts and are powerful symbolic works of art that are displayed during Día de los Muertos. Traditionally created with sugar, they symbolize our loved ones who have departed and represent the sweetness of life that remains. While they suggest our impermanence, they also serve as reminders that we should cherish our time and the life around us.
Milwaukee students as young as elementary up to 8th grade, brought these skulls to life one piece of tissue paper at a time. Grade after grade picked up where the last students left off, and while the hours passed, we watched them evolve and develop their own personalities. Through this collaboration these students can continue celebrating this long-standing tradition and beautiful relationship with grief and memory.
During the MAM's Kohl's Family Sundays: Día de los Muertos celebration, Salgado also led a workshop where guests could create their own calavera, butterfly, or cempasúchil window cling. Once an image was drawn onto a transparency sheet, tissue paper was available for guests to decorate their drawings When finished and held up a light course or a window, their work becomes a faux stained glass work of art that catches the light.
