Día de Muertos, the Mexican holiday honoring the dead, can take many forms. Like any tradition, it can vary from region to region and from house to house. Typically, families build ofrendas, or altars, with photos, favorite foods, and personal items of the deceased, along with incense, pan de muerto, marigolds, and candles. At the Denver Art Museum, we celebrate Día de Muertos with a staff ofrenda in the Creative Hub. And last year, we started a new tradition: Momentos de Memoria.
The brainchild of Manuel Ferreira, Interpretive Specialist of Latin American Art, Momentos de Memoria invites visitors to the museum to place colorful paper skulls next to artworks that remind them of someone or something they’ve lost.
The brightly colored paper skulls, which appeared at stations across the museum’s three buildings, are modeled after the calavera, the skull that’s central symbol of Día de Muertos. For those with their own Día de Muertos practice, the skull is a clear reference to the holiday. Museum visitors with ofrendas in their own homes can see Momentos de Memoria as an extension of their practice. Visitors with no personal connection to Día de Muertos can still find meaning through the skull and its cross-cultural connections to death.
“The goal was to create space for visitors to engage with grief and art on their own terms,” Ferreira said. “Even if people haven’t participated in Día de Muertos, they have still likely experienced loss and their own emotions and actions around grieving, honoring, and remembering.”
Last year, visitors left 1,200 paper skulls at roughly 600 artworks across the DAM’s three buildings, leaving a literal paper trail of grief and remembrance. Anyone walking through the museum could see the power of art to evoke memory and connection.
For Día de Muertos at the museum this year, from October 26 through November 4, our tradition is expanding. We’ll add more skull stations around the museum, and the museum will now provide writing implements to give guests a chance to personalize their momento.
On November 1, please join us for performances by Opera Colorado at 11 am and noon.
On November 7, enjoy a reading of calaveritas (short, humorous poems) with readers from El Comercio de Colorado.
These performances, readings, and participation in Momentos de Memoria are included with general admission, which is free for members and everyone 18 and under.
We hope you’ll join us at the museum for Día de Muertos and the chance to experience the universality of grief and memory through the singular power of art.
