Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)

For over ten years, Missoula’s art community has celebrated a festival patterned after the Latin American Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead. Deriving from the syncretistic traditions of Spanish Catholicism and indigenous America, the festival takes place every November 2 and honors the dearly departed through art, dance, music, and performance. Missoula’s version has received national attention, in no small part from the participation of the Art Department which has contributed consistently since the festival’s inception. Mary Ann Bonjorni’s drawing students drape the campus with large drawings of skeletons and Jim Bailey and Elizabeth Dove’s printmaking students roll out their famous steamroller prints for the parade. Professor Rafael Chacón’s Latin American Art History classes build shrines around town and march in the parade in various guises and performances and Bobby Tilton’s art education students parade Katie, the infamous colossal skeleton and sometimes Buffy, the skeletal bison, also makes an appearance.