Art museum hosts Day of the Dead festival

The Palm Springs Art Museum hosted a community arts festival Sunday, in honor of Day of the Dead.

Also known as Día de los Muertos, the holiday celebrates and honors those who have died.

Along with symbolic works of art, the museum’s festival included arts and crafts, music and food trucks, all expressing a connection to those who have passed on.

“It’s a way of using the arts to communicate that,” Leonardo Bravo, Director of Education for the Palm Springs Art Museum said. “The arts as ritual [and] the arts as a way to heal. But [also], the arts as a way to represent through the way in which the altars are created. Through symbols, which are the skulls, in a way that kind of creates a way for us to feel as sending people off into a different journey.”

The festival included an exhibit dedicated to the 58 people killed in the recent Las Vegas mass shooting.

“In a way by giving voice, by representing those who past away, it kind of creates a greater connection,” Bravo said. “It creates that connection of deeply trying to heal that wound.”

The museum will have another celebration on November 3rd at its Palm Desert location.