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What's On Community Days
Several times a year, the museum sets aside a day for the whole community.
Some honor a living cultural tradition — a festival or observance carried by communities around the world and here in Memphis. Others invite everyone to make something together. All of them are a chance to learn, to take part, and to understand a little more of the lives around you — because culture is best understood in good company.
Lunar New Year
Lunar New Year welcomes a fresh start on the lunisolar calendar with a day of performance, music and celebration. Gather with neighbors for the customs that sweep out the old year and invite good fortune into the new, with food, dance and art-making for all ages — a tradition kept by communities across East and Southeast Asia and here in Memphis.
Holi
Holi is the festival of color, welcoming spring and the triumph of good over evil in a haze of bright pigment. The day opens with henna and art-making indoors, then spills outside for its joyful heart — music, food and great handfuls of color thrown skyward by everyone at once.
Chalkfest
Chalkfest turns the museum exterior into a vast, temporary gallery drawn in chalk. Local artists reinterpret works from the collection while families make their own art across the pavement. With live performance and art-making all day, it's the museum's largest celebration of making something together.
Día de Muertos
Rooted in Mexican tradition, Día de Muertos honors loved ones who have died and celebrates the lives they lived. Memphis marks the holiday with a downtown parade and ofrendas created by local students and artists, along with artmaking, face painting, music and dance.