The Mathers Museum of World Cultures hosts the 7th Annual Dia de los Muertos Community Altar installation. This year’s altar will be curated by Rachel DiGregorio and Michael Redman with support from Wandering Turtle Art Gallery On-Line. Community members are invited to add gifts to the altar in honor of their deceased loved ones over the course of the exhibit (October 16 – November 4). During this Mexican holiday, it is customary to leave those who have preceded us in death small offerings of items they would have enjoyed during their lifetime; thus nurturing the memory of their lives and letting them know they have not been forgotten and remain a part of our lives today. Each year the Community Altar is built on the foundation of the previous years’ offerings.

Recurring daily during regular museum hours: Tue – Fri, 9 am – 4:30 pm; Sat – Sun 1 – 4:30 pm.

October brings four new exhibits to the Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center. All exhibits are available for viewing during regular gallery hours (Mon-Fri 9 am-7 pm, Sat 9 am-5 pm).

Contemporary fabric artist Sandy Hill splashes the walls with jewel-toned swirls and flourishes. Her freestyle forms employ silky-sheen fabrics and light-catching metallic threads, making a joyous quilting tour-de-force that celebrates the colors of the rainbow.

Tom Rhea takes us on a painterly tour of Bloomington’s best-loved landmarks, both town and gown. An eye for detail, a heartfelt connection with his subject matter , and an uncanny ability to render light on limestone make Rhea’s watercolors a delight for locals and visitors.

Sculptor (and writer) James Alexander Thom hand-carves fallen trees to reveal their spirits as sinuous, self-referencing, and graceful.

Fascinated by pattern and the negative space between objects, Ellen Starr Lyon says her current work is about “lushness of the commonplace.” A conservator at the IU Art Museum, Lyon is especially drawn to elements of Asian art, which are often found in her still-lifes.

Seven Bloomington maiolica artists are showing work at the Farmer House Museum from Oct. 5 to Dec. 6, 2012. They are leExposition Universelle. Susan Snyder, who learned the tradition and art of maiolica in Faenza, Italy from traditional artisans, and began to share her knowledge with ceramic artists in Bloomington upon her return, by way of England, in the 1990s. “Majolica”, spelled with a “j”, is the word for a 19 century English and French style, that has little to do with the Italian style, except for the use of metal-based glazes. Snyder practices and teaches the original craft of maiolica, which began in Italy in the 1400s. It is a folk style, in which linear designs are painted in bright colors on plates, bowls and other vessels.

Hours are 10 am -1 pm Wednesday-Friday, 10 am – 4 pm Saturday, 10 am – 2 pm Sunday

This installation, running from September 11 to December 31, will focus on three photographers Julia Margaret Cameron, Edward Weston, and Harry Callahan, who used their romantic partners as their subjects. Whether portraits or nude studies, these images reveal a sensitivity that comes from the artists and sitters’ close personal relationships.

This installation is presented in conjunction it the special exhibition “A Place Aside: Artists and their Partners,” on view at the Kinsey Institute Gallery, September 28–December 20.

Artists working in Paris and Lorraine during the Baroque period developed distinctive styles—which focused on the vibrancy of the line—that differed markedly from their Italian and Dutch contemporaries. The two print kiosks in the early part of the gallery feature French works by Jacques Bellange, Claude Lorrain, Jacques Callot, and Claude Mellan, whose engraving is a tour de force of printmaking that creates the face of Christ using a single line.

Pictura Gallery on the downtown Square presents two exhibits, “Watershed” by Jeff Rich and “Captive Landscapes” by Daniel Kukla, which will run through October 27. “Watershed” is a photographic study of industry and environments in rural America; “Captive Landscapes” showcases a number of artificial landscapes designed to emulate the natural world. Pictura Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 am to 7 pm.

A ghoulish cast of traditional Halloween characters…a Juggling Scarecrow, Dancing Skeleton & Ghost, Alien, The Flying Purple People Eater, a Kitchen Witch, Concert Pianist & Dracula…all will amaze you with their trickery while they perform on a charming Halloween set.

Showing multiple times per day. Runs from September 29 to October 28.

This exhibit, “A Place Aside: Artists and Their Partners,” is on display at the Kinsey Institute Gallery and will run from September 28 to December 20.

Since the invention of photography, the camera has been turned towards loved ones to document birthdays, vacations, graduations, and other significant events. For each of the couples included in this exhibition, however, photography is not a method of simply recording events but a means of exploring their partnership through the creation of art. While the photographs serve as documents of a couple’s life together, they also reveal the trust and respect that each partner has for the other.

The Kinsey Institute Gallery is open to the public Monday-Friday, 1:30 pm-5 pm.

A ghoulish cast of traditional Halloween characters…a Juggling Scarecrow, Dancing Skeleton & Ghost, Alien, The Flying Purple People Eater, a Kitchen Witch, Concert Pianist & Dracula…all will amaze you with their trickery while they perform on a charming Halloween set.

Showing multiple times per day. Runs from September 29 to October 28.

Robert Clark, a Ph.D. graduate of Indiana University and associate professor of French at Kansas State University, will focus on a few manifestations of host desecration as expressed in art and drama and as recorded in the archives. Lecture is free and open to the public.