HalloWheaton

A long digital banner for "WHEATONARTS' HALLOWHEATON: REMEMBERING OUR ANCESTORS. Saturday October 29 12 p.m. to 4 p.m." This is displayed in white text over an image of a retablo which is orange and has blue and yellow flower designs on the panels. There is a red and black background for the banner.

HalloWheaton: Remembering Our Ancestors

Free Admission!
Saturday, October 29, 2022
12 p.m. to 4 p.m.

This event is rain or shine, scare-free, & family-friendly!

A close-up of an altar made by the HalloWheaton: Remembering Your Ancestors Celebration Special Program Tecuanis dance group with a Day-of-The-Dead multicolored skull on top of a grey table cloth. Around the skull are orange flowers and candles.
Several sacred kites for the Day of the Dead by Ubaldo Sanchez. Each kite is unique and multicolored.
Find out why this event has become a local family tradition! Trick-or-Treat in your Halloween costume throughout the WheatonArts campus to meet & take photos with traditional costumed characters played by the talented Mystic Realms actors.
 
2022 Special Program! Remembering Our Ancestors Celebration: Many Latin American cultures believe that the deceased return on the Day of the Dead, and people offer gifts to connect with them. During HalloWheaton, experience unique displays & hands-on demonstrations of folk & traditional arts, along with narrated music, dance, and ritual performances celebrating the unity of life & death by Argentinean, Bolivian, Chilean, Colombian, Garifuna, Guatemalan, Honduran, Mexican, and Panamanian groups.
 
Two art installations, the Ofrenda (Altar) made by the Tecuanis Dance group, and a sawdust and floral path to the altar and cemetery created by Guatemalan artist Ubaldo Sanchez, will visualize the Day of the Dead symbolism. A “live” Peruvian retablo (portable box scene), designed by Peruvian artist Elva Navarro, will frame the Event Center space.

Remembering Our Ancestors

By remembering our ancestors, we link ages, generations, and memories of the past with expectations for the future. Honoring our ancestors is a way of expressing gratitude for the wisdom they passed on to us and recognizing our responsibilities to our posterity. Our generation is the vessel containing past experiences and future promises while celebrating the cycle of life through ritual, arts, music, and dance. This link is most prominently expressed in Latin America during Day of the Dead celebrations.

Performance Schedule

Outdoor Grand Entry
12 p.m. to 12:20 p.m.
– Danza Tecuanis, Mask dance

Inside the Event Center
12:30 p.m. to 12:45 p.m.
– Ritual Opening with Ubaldo Sánchez & Julia García

12:45 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
– Colombian Ayelén Dance, El Dorado Dance

1:00 p.m. to 1:10 p.m.
– Maya AWAL Dance Group, Kite Dance

1:10 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
– Danza Tecuanis, The Death of the Jaguar Dance

1:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.
– Edilia & Gerardo, Argentine Tango Demo

1:45 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
– Maya AWAL Dance Group, Deer Dance

2:00 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.
– GRUFOLPAWA Panamanian Music & Dance Group, Tamborito, Congo de Colón, Ay Juan Dances

2:15 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
– AWAL Maya Dance Group, Weavers’ Dance

2:30 p.m. to 2:55 p.m.
– Edilia & Gerardo, Argentine Tango Class

2:55 p.m. to 3:10 p.m.
– GRUFOLPAWA Panamanian Music & Dance Group, Danzón Cumbia, Viva Panamá Dances

3:10 p.m. to 4 p.m.
– Viva Vallenato Cumbia Band with Colombian Ayelén Dance, Bullerengue Dance, Cumbia Sampuesana/Cumbia Cienaguera Medley and Finale: Cumbia dance party for the audience

Off Stage: 
1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
– Voices of Garifuna, storytelling & stilt walking training at the Museum of American Glass

2:20 p.m. to 2:50 p.m.
– Voices of Garifuna, stilt walking at the front gate

HalloWheaton: Remembering Your Ancestors Celebration Special Program artist Rafael Jimenez Lopez is wearing a blue polor shirt and painting a clay mask for the celebration.

Displays & Demonstrations

View unique displays & hands-on demonstrations of folk & traditional arts, including:

Arisbet Mota, La Catrina Face Painting
Armando Sosa, Guatemalan Weaving
Colombian CDC, Colombian Dolls & Processing of Gold
Cutarras, and Dance Costumes
Dendê Macêdo, Brazilian Musical Instruments
Doris Nogueira-Rogers, Multimedia Arts
Elva Navarro Acharte, Peruvian Fiber Arts
GRUFOLPAWA, Panamanian Molas, Sombreros,
Julia García, Bolivian “Day of the Dead” Mesa
Julia Sánchez & Angélica López, Guatemalan Weaving
Luz Reyes, Mexican Paper Flowers
Rafael Jiménez López, Mexican masks
Ubaldo A Sánchez, Guatemalan Kites

Viva Vallenato Cumbia Band performing outside ay night with a large sign in the background. The band has four men holding instruments posing for the camera. There is also a man behind them and three people watching over the railing.
Mafalda Thomas Bouzy, a performer, is sitting on a bench and smiling at the camera. She is wearing a yellow and pink festive hat-like garment.
A young boy in a yellow shirt, sitting at a brown table, is cutting out his drawing of a bright-colored skull. To his right, the back of the image is a girl with long hair and a red-striped shirt, coloring in a skull template with an orange marker. There is a stack of skull template paper between them. At the bottom left corner of the image are three cups containing a variety of colored markers.

Family Art Activities

Day of the Dead Face Masks: Celebrate the Day of the Dead (Dia De Los Muertos) by decorating a mask. During the traditional celebration, people often wear elaborately decorated masks to honor a passed loved one.

Craft Stick Spider Webs: Create a spider web using craft sticks and yarn. Using craft sticks, young artists will create the base of their spider’s web. Then, they will spin a web using yarn. 

Fused Glass Magnet or Pendant: Make-Your-Own Fused Glass Magnets and Pendants inside the Education Studio! $10 each. These fun fused glass projects are available for ages 5 & up (with parental assistance). Projects are fired and can be picked up or shipped (for a fee) in 7 to 10 business days.

This event is scare-free and family-friendly. Admission to HalloWheaton is FREE, part of the “WheatonArts Family Days! Presented by PNC Arts Alive!“ program. This event includes access to the Museum of American Glass, Down Jersey Folklife Center, Artist Studios, and Museum Stores. 

PNC Bank Banner

Remembering Our Ancestors programming is provided by the Down Jersey Folklife Center, a co-sponsored project of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and WheatonArts, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The logos of the organizations involved in HalloWheaton: Remembering Your Ancestors Celebration Special Program. "PRESENTED BY: NEW JERSEY STAYE COUNCIL ON THE ARTS EST. 1966, NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS arts.gov, NEW JERSEY COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES, NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES, LATINOAMERICANAS: RAICES CULTURALES, EMBASSY OF CHILE, ARTESANIAS DE CHILE, NEW JERSEY HISTORICAL COMMISSION, FRIENDS OF THE IXCHEL MUSEUM: SUPPORTING THE TEXTILE ARTS OF GUATEMALA, and CUMBERLAND COUNTY CULTURAL HERITAGE COMMISSION"
A cutout of the Tecuanis Dance group, one of the performers at HalloWheaton: Remembering Your Ancestors Celebration Special Program. There are six women each wearing a different colored bright dress. There are red, blue, orange, green, pink, and light blue dresses. They each have multicolored stripes and the women are wearing flower crowns. There are five men behind them in sombreros.
X