Day of the Living Dead, on State

Among the city’s annual Halloween/Día de los Muertos holiday season events, a decades-long tradition is gathering at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) for a family day of activities and festivities with live music and dancing, and Refreshments in tow. On this holy day, children of all ages and backgrounds come together, with and without a direct connection to the artistic agenda of the museum’s mission.

Since last year, the now 35-year-old tradition has been expanded to include a broader move into the public space on State Street and a deeper inter-institutional collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB). This relatively new cross-muse pact led to the high-profile art exhibition collaboration earlier this year with conceptual photographer Janna Ireland True Story Indexwhich includes both museum locations.

At SBMA, on Sunday, October 20 (a week earlier than usual), from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., there will be the usual exhibition and decoration of contemporary altars, as well as activities such as face painting and still life collages inspired by the well-known artist Alfredo Ramos Martínez and a diorama-like newspaper Nichos (three-dimensional shadow boxes) inspired by the famous Mexican master Rufino Tamayo. Also in the mix of activities are paper flower headpieces suitable as costume decorations for the post-SBMA event parade.

With or without head coverings, the festival schedule now connects SBMA with MCASB as participants stream into the streets for a celebratory procession in Oaxaca known as the Day of the Dead Calenda, ending in a joyous and blissful mass of dance-inspired humanity on the Arts Terrace of the MCASB home stadium on Paseo Nuevo. The Calenda is described as “a traditional festival that represents the expression of joy, the strengthening of family, community and personal bonds.”

It’s true: At the large gathering at last year’s opening event, music and dancing lined the path and enlivened the day. This year’s celebration features groups with roots in cultural rituals and performance practices from the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Guerrero, including Banda de Viento de San Jorge de Oaxaca, Lico Music Academy, Las Danzas de los Díablos and Rubios de la Mixteca Baja grupo Agua Azul, Danza de la Pluma San Pablo Güilá and the epic masked puppets of the Oaxacreation Monos de Calenda.

The MCASB portion of the day’s event will include Oaxacan cuisine, art vendors, a funeral altar and a dance party led by Los Hijos de San Juan Mixtepec from 6:30 to 7 p.m

A long-standing local tradition awaits you, and now an even richer, mobile Mexican festival awaits you. Call it “Old Mexican Day.” For more information, see sbma.net/learn/kidsfamilies/ffdAnd bit.ly/4eEmzEC.