The Dia De Los Muertos Community Arts Festival brings together artists, students, and community members for a collaborative art event.
More than 1,500 people from across the Walla Walla Valley attend this free event each fall. This festival came about because of the vision and collaboration of organizations across the city, including the Walla Walla Latino Alliance, the Walla Walla Public Schools, Shakespeare Walla Walla, Art Walla, Carnegie Picture Lab, Whitman College Art Department, and many other local nonprofits.
As part of the festival, Whitman art students work with community members to carve and collaboratively print giant woodcuts using a steamroller. For over a month before the festival, Beginning Printmaking students hand-carve designs on 4-by-4-foot and 4-by-8-foot sheets of medium density fiberboard. The students also help teach community members how to carve their own mini-relief blocks, which could be printed on paper or t-shirts using the steamroller.
Articles about the Project
Whitman Magazine
"Collaboration made creation of art a success," Union Bulletin