The Sugar Hill Museum Presents “Viva la Vida” A Site-Specific Installation by Award-Winning Artist Andrea Arroyo, Inspired by Day of the Dead. 

Opening Reception: Saturday, October 25, 3–5 p.m. Featuring live painting by Andrea Arroyo with music by jazz legend Ms. Marjorie Eliot (3:30pm)

On View October 24 – November 2, 2025

WHAT: Viva la Vida, a participatory installation celebrating life, memory, and heritage

WHERE: Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling, 898 St. Nicholas Ave @ 155th St, New York, NY 10032

WHEN: October 24 – November 2, 2025

Opening Reception: Saturday, October 25, 3–5 p.m. Featuring live painting by Andrea Arroyo with music by jazz legend Ms. Marjorie Eliot (3:30pm)

Hours: Friday 10am-5pm; Saturday & Sunday 10am-3pm.

Family Workshop: Saturday, Nov. 1, 11am–1pm.

The Sugar Hill Museum of Art & Storytelling is pleased to present Viva la Vida, a site-specific installation by award-winning artist Andrea Arroyo, on view from October 24 through November 2, 2025.

The opening reception will feature a special artistic collaboration: live painting by Andrea Arroyo in dialogue with the music of jazz legend Ms. Marjorie Eliot.

Inspired by her Mexican heritage, Arroyo’s Viva la Vida celebrates the timeless dance between life and memory. Rooted in the tradition of Día de Muertos, the installation reflects the invisible threads that unite the living with those who have passed, honoring ancestry, heritage, and the intimate stories of loved ones.

Once a year, home and community ofrendas open a symbolic doorway, welcoming spirits to return while the living remember, reflect, and rejoice. These offerings become bridges between worlds, affirming the continuity of life.

Transforming remembrance into a shared act of resilience and celebration, Viva la Vida blends tradition with contemporary expression. More than a work of art, the installation invites visitors to actively participate—becoming both altar and gathering place, where memory deepens into connection, and loss is transfigured into joy, gratitude, and collective belonging.

Attendees are encouraged to bring small photographs (copies, not originals) and cards to place on the altar, as well as to inscribe messages on the provided cards and ribbons. These offerings will become part of a collective tapestry of remembrance, honoring and celebrating loved ones. (No food or candles, please.)

About the Artist: Andrea Arroyo is an award-winning artist whose work is exhibited internationally and is in the collections of the National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, and the Richmond Museum.

She has received numerous awards, including The New York Women’s Foundation Award, Fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, The United Nations Lurie Award, Artist Employment Creative Rebuild New York Fellowship, Global Citizen Award Artist, Clinton Global Initiative, Cuba International Biennial, Award, Hispanic Federation/NoMAA/Google Award, and multiple awards from the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, the Puffin Foundation, the Harlem Arts Alliance, the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. She was named Outstanding Woman of New York, Hero of the Pandemic, Official Artist of the Latin Grammy, Groundbreaking Latina in the Arts, and Outstanding Latina of the Year.

Arroyo’s work has been extensively published, including on the cover of The New Yorker magazine and in The New York Times, The Nation, Ms. Magazine, The Manhattan Times, and Le Monde, and numerous international publications.

About the Sugar Hill Museum The Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling provides our culturally rich neighborhood with a space where children and their families grow and learn about Sugar Hill, and about the world at large, through intergenerational dialogue with artists, art and storytelling.

Designed to nurture the curiosity and creative spirit of three- to eight-year-old children, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling provides opportunities to grow as both author and audience, as children engage with the work of accomplished artists and storytellers, and create and share their own.

Viva la Vida is presented by the Sugar Hill Museum in partnership with The Morris-Jumel Mansion and the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, and is supported in part by UMEZ Arts Engagement, a regrant program supported by Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation, administered by LMCC. Additional support by Mano a  Mano: Mexican Culture Without Borders.