NEWS RELEASE
Oakland Museum of California
www.museumca.org

10TH & OAK STREETS
OAKLAND, CA  94607

For additional information:
Elizabeth Whipple
510/238-4740, M-F, 510/932-6832 Weekend MEDIA ONLY
PUBLIC CALLS: 510/238-2200
ewhipple@museumca.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
20 October 2006

WEEKEND MEDIA ALERT

El Muertorider by Artemio Rodriguez, John Jota Leaños, and Sean Levon Nash of the Burning Wagon Collective, 2006. Image: Artemio Rodriguez

WHAT 13TH annual Days of the Dead Community Celebration and the arrival of El Muertorider, a customized 1968 Chevy Impala!

WHEN Sunday, October 22, 12–4 p.m.

VENUE Oakland Museum of California, 10th & Oak Streets.
One block from Lake Merritt BART.

ADMISSION Community Celebration is FREE. Admission to the museum, including the Days of the Dead exhibition, Laughing Bones/Weeping Hearts, is half-price all day: $4 adults; $2.50 seniors/students with ID; free for members, kids 5 and under, and Oakland City employees.
INFO 510/238-2200 or www.museumca.org

The Oakland Museum of California hosts a free family celebration with music, dance, a ceremonia (ceremony), costumed revelers, crafts and demonstrations, and a mercado (market). Food and drink by local restaurants are available.

Performers include Cascada de Flores, Ballet Folklorico Mexicano, La Familia Peña-Govea, Danza Xiuhcoatl, Mariachi San Jose, and Yolanda Aranda.

El Muertorider, a 1968 Chevy Impala customized by artists Artemio Rodriguez, John Jota Leaños, and Sean Levon Nash, arrives at 1 p.m. Visitors can sit in the car and listen to ¡radio muerta! (El Muertorider will be on view through November 26.)

The Community Celebration is the highlight of the museum’s annual Days of the Dead exhibition, a spiritual tradition honoring the dead that began in ancient Mexico and Central America. Celebrants create ofrendas (altars) with flowers, food, and personal mementos for their ancestors and loved ones. Laughing Bones/Weeping Hearts continues through December 3, 2006.

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