OFRENDA - Amor y Memoria: Community Day Workshops

OFRENDA 2026 - Amor y Memoria
30 October – 3 November 2026
Fish Lane Arts Precinct, QPAC’s Melbourne Street Green, and Merivale Studios

🏵OFRENDA 2026 Amor y Memoria is a transformative Mexican arts and cultural event celebrating Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead).

Join in celebration of rich and diverse Mexican cultures, where ancestral memory and contemporary artistic practices are woven together. Visual art, storytelling, music, performance, workshops, and traditional cuisine unite around an ‘ofrenda’ (altar/offering) at the centre of festivities.

During Día de Muertos, ofrendas are created to honour, remember, and welcome home the souls of our loved ones who have departed, keeping their memory alive through photographs, flowers, food, and personal offerings.

🏵OFRENDA 2026’s theme, ‘Amor y Memoria’ (Love and Memory), invites us into a space between two worlds, a liminal place where we can reflect on how love and memory sustain our connection with those who have departed and keep our shared traditions alive.

🏵OFRENDA provides an opportunity for Brisbane/Meanjin’s Mexican diaspora to connect around tradition and for the wider community to appreciate Día de Muertos as a vibrant, living celebration of contemporary cultural identity rooted in Indigenous cultures.

SATURDAY 31 OCTOBER - Workshops Program

Locations: Merivale Studios-29 Merivale St, South Brisbane

                Fish Lane/ South Brisbane 

10:00 AM- 10:00 PM - CULTURAL & FAMILY DAY

Registratons are required for all workshops due to limited capacity. Proceeds go towards running the workshops.

View the exhibition at Merivale Studios, and enjoy music and performance all the day at Fish Lane - free entry.

Alebrijes Kids Workshop with Rocío: During the workshop, children will learn what alebrijes are, their importance within Mexican culture and their connection with the Day of the Dead: a celebration that honours life, lovingly remembers our loved ones and keeps our traditions alive through art, colours and symbols.

Make Your Own Ofrenda with Miss Gaby: In this activity we will build a group Ofrenda (altar) together, decorating it with skulls, papel picado, flowers and frames. To finish, we’ll have a brief reflection on the meaning of the tradition.

Ofrenda Storytelling Workshop with Andrea: Discover the story behind the Catrinas and their creator. Put your writing skills to the test and have fun crafting your very own "calaveras literarias" (traditional rhymes)!

Poster artwork by @kattattak_studio
Font: Feroniapi Wiegel & Julienne Richard

Presented by @contempoartscollective and @bemacpresents, in collaboration with the Meanjin Mexican Community. Supported by @explorefishlane @atqpac @merivalestudios OFRENDA takes place on Yuggera and Turrbul Country.

BEMAC is a subsidiary of @ssi_news and supported by @artsqueensland

As visitors, migrants, and immigrants, we acknowledge that this event takes place on unceded Aboriginal lands, and pay our respects to the custodians of Country as the first artists of these lands. Always was, always will be.