Bath House Cultural Center Partners & Dallas Mayor Celebrate Day of the Dead Show

Mayor Mike Rawlings joined the skeletons and ghosties and long-leggety beasties who roamed the halls of the Bath House Cultural Center Sunday, October 14, for the opening reception for the 26th Annual Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Exhibition. He viewed art, talked with artists, including student artists of the Thriving Minds After-School Program, and met with Marty Van Kleeck, manager of the Center and Susan Lecky, president of the Friends of the Bath House Cultural Center to talk about the arts and cultural programs offered at the Cultural Center.

“We were delighted that Mayor Rawlings was able to accept our invitation,” said Lecky. “This is a much-loved exhibition, and we were pleased that he was able to to experience first-hand one of the outstanding programs that Marty Van Kleeck, Enrique Fernández Cervantes, and Theresa Furphy provide with their partners at the Bath House Cultural Center. ”

More than 600 visitors captured all the festivity of the memorial celebration as artists and guests donned make-up and costumes. Members of the modern dance collective Barefoot Brigade, a group that performs regularly at the Bath House Cultural Center, created improvisational dances among gallery-goers. And “The Bath House Bunch,” students of the Thriving Minds After-School Program— a partnership between the Office of Cultural Affairs and Big Thought, Inc.—displayed their art as a complement to the show theme honoring “ideas, people, pets and things that have passed on.” The Day of the Dead Exhibition continues through November 10 in the galleries.

Mayor Rawlings talks with Bath House Culture Center Manager Marty Van Kleeck, Visual Arts Coordinator Enrique Fernández Cervantes, and Artist Susan Lecky, president of the Friends of the Bath House Cultural Center