Day of the Dead Celebration: Community Art Workshop with Cesar Viveros

Cesar Viveros is leading a community art workshop at Gateway Plaza at FDR Park on Thursday, October 22, from 4 PM to 6 PM. It's a free, drop-in session, so you can just show up and get your hands dirty. The whole point is to help Viveros assemble a Día de los Muertos installation that'll stand at the park's pedestrian entrance from Friday, October 23 through Monday, October 26.

Once it's up, the installation serves as the backdrop for the Gran Fiesta de los Muertos, the celebration that brings the Mexican holiday to FDR Park with music, dance, and face painting. If you spend an afternoon helping build it, you'll be able to see your own work as part of the scene when the party actually kicks off.

Cesar Viveros Herrera has spent more than three decades creating public art in the United States and his native Mexico. He's worked with Philadelphia organizations like Mural Arts and the Fleisher Art Memorial, and his practice pulls from a wide range of traditions: Aztec dances and ceremonies, miniature altars, sculptures, fresco paintings, mosaics, and feather work, alongside his murals. This workshop is a chance to see that kind of public-facing process up close rather than just seeing the finished product.

Admission is free, though donations are appreciated. It runs from 4 PM to 6 PM on Thursday, October 22, at Gateway Plaza at FDR Park.