The Arts Council of Park City & Summit County will host its annual Día de los Muertos celebration from 2 to 5 p.m. on Saturday at CREATE PC, the council’s gallery space on Bonanza Drive.
Free and open to the public, the event will feature a community altar, art displays, tamales, hot chocolate, pan de muerto, face painting and a sugar skull decorating activity for families. Leading up to the event, community members are invited to bring photos, keepsakes or other meaningful items to contribute to the ofrenda — a collective altar honoring loved ones who have passed.
“It’s important because even if it’s not our own tradition, it makes us reflect on how we’re living life and what life is all about,” said Andrea Zavala, community inclusion and engagement coordinator with the Arts Council.
Zavala, who also manages the Latino Arts Festival, said this will be the third time the Arts Council will organize the event and the second year it takes place in the gallery. The altar installation will be led by artists Ramón Ramos and Clara Amezcua, who also participated in the Latino Arts Festival. Their work, she said, highlights the beauty and cultural significance behind Día de los Muertos traditions such as catrinas and handmade ofrendas.
“We’ll have displays of catrinas throughout the gallery, and the artists will share more about their meaning,” Zavala said. “People see the face paint and the skulls, but it’s about much more than that.”
In the Mexican tradition of Día de los Muertos — typically celebrated on Nov. 1 and 2 — families come together not in sorrow but in celebration to honor and remember the lives of loved ones who have passed away. Homes and public spaces are adorned with colorful altars that feature photographs of the departed, candles, the vibrant orange-yellow cempasúchil flowers and favorite foods or drinks of the deceased.
These offerings are meant to welcome the spirits back, to bridge the living and the dead, as a reminder that death is a natural phase of life and not an isolating end. The tradition traces its roots to pre-Hispanic Indigenous rituals, particularly from Mesoamerica, and also incorporates Catholic commemorations of All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days, together creating a rich cultural celebration that honors ancestry, memory, family ties and the continuity of life across generations.
Zavala, who is originally from Ecuador, said learning about the Mexican tradition has shaped how she thinks about life and legacy.
In Ecuador, Día de los Muertos is more about visiting cemeteries, bringing flowers and sharing traditional foods, she said. Whereas in Mexico: “It’s about remembering and celebrating the person — bringing the things they loved, their favorite foods, telling their stories. It’s about celebrating life.”
She said that reflection makes the celebration meaningful for everyone, regardless of their background.
“It makes you think about what people would say about you if they made you an ofrenda,” Zavala said with a laugh. “It helps you lose some of that fear of death because you realize it’s part of the cycle, and it makes you focus more on how you’re living your life now.”
Tamales and pan de muerto at the celebration will be prepared by local hands, Graciela Caro will lead the sugar skull decorating workshop and face painting will be done by Jely from ColoryFaces.
Zavala said the goal is to make the celebration both educational and inclusive, while staying true to its roots. She said that it’s all about bringing something different to the community that they might not see if it wasn’t for organizations like the Arts Council.
For more information, visit pcscarts.org/dia-de-los-muertos.