El Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, combines indigenous American practices, Western beliefs and the traditional celebration of All Saints and All Souls Days, as well as local harvest rites in honoring the memory of departed loved ones.

This year marks the sixth annual celebration of the Day of the Dead at SUNY College at Brockport in cooperation with Go Art! (Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council), and partially funded by grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, The New York State Council for the Humanities, and the Arts and Cultural Council for Greater Rochester.

The El Dia de los Muertos installation, created by local artist Antonio Cruz Zavaleta, opens October 25 and continues through November 2, 1 to 4 p.m., in the Tower Fine Arts Center, Art Student Association Rainbow Gallery, Holley Street.

This year, the Day of the Dead celebration has been expanded to include two photography exhibitions by local artists, Family Ties do not Die: the Dia de los Muertos in Oaxaca, Mexico by Denis Defibaugh, and Farmworkers in the Community by Anne M. Pawlaczyk, whose work features photographs of Western New York migrant life. The photography exhibits are in the Tower Fine Arts Gallery, which is open from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., October 24 through November 4.