Dia de los Muertos

As I promised, here are pictures of some of the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) alters at the Indianapolis Arts Center's annual Dia de los Meurtos celebrations!  The alters are made by local artists, some individual, some collaborative, some in honor of people in their lives who have passed away, some in honor of people who were an influence on their lives from a distance.

This alter is in honor of John Lennon

This is a close up of one of the decorations from the alter below - a knitted skeleton - how cool!

This alter is a collaborative effort by several mothers in honor of their children who passed away early in life

these sculptures are part of a collaborative effort (see below) by students at a local school

the collaborative alter

This alter was done by a woman in honor of he niece who died at the age of 2 after battling cancer for more than half of her little life.  The photographs were heart wrenching and the paintings - esp the one at the very top - were beautiful

I believe that this shrine was done by the hispanic population at one of our local churches

This is the flagship alter by the front entrance - on the floor is a sand skeleton sculpture - just amazing traditional Dia de los Muertos artwork

This alter was done by the students of a local middle school in honor of a boy who had cerebal palsy.  It was so touching and the only interactive alter - at the bottom were paper leaves where they encouraged you to write something about someone who is your hero or someone who inspires you and attach it to the tree on the alter

very cool alter by an artist about an artist

They really do a great job at IAC honoring this amazing holiday that so many of us don't know anything about!  Check them out at www.indplsartcenter.org !!