SOUTHLAND TAKING ON A FESTIVE ATMOSPHERE

Festivals and other events designed to extend exhibition programs by reaching out to the community are bursting out all over the Southland.

A free public festival of Indonesian art, music and dance takes place next Sunday in UCLA’s Dickson Art Center and in the adjoining Franklin Murphy Sculpture Garden. Held in conjunction with the current exhibition of ancestral sculpture at the Frederick S. Wight Gallery, the festival includes a symposium followed by Balinese and Sudanese dance, gamelan music and a Balinese shadow-puppet performance plus samples of Indonesian cuisine.

The Indonesian cultures represented in the exhibition are geographically scattered but linked by a shared belief in the powers of deceased ancestors who influenced the fate of the living. An elaborate set of rituals and ceremonies evolved to placate such ancestral spirits with food offerings and appropriate sacrifices, dances, music, monuments, special houses or works of art.

The symposium at 2 p.m. in Dickson Auditorium features slide lectures by authorities on Indonesian culture: Eric Crystal of UC Berkeley will discuss “Ancestor Veneration Among the Toraja of Sulawesi”; Jerome Feldman of Hawaii Loa College will speak on “Keeping the Ancestors at Bay in Nias”; and George Ellis, director of the Honolulu Academy of Arts and former associate director of UCLA’s Museum of Cultural History, will examine “Indonesian Art in the Museum of Cultural History.”

In the mid-town area, the Craft and Folk Art Museum’s open house, next Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., presents a workshop in mask-making from noon to 3 p.m. in Hancock Park. The free program is offered in preparation for the 1986 Festival of Masks.

In Highland Park, the Southwest Museum hosts its fourth annual Native American Arts Festival, Saturday and next Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Throughout the two-day festival a re-created portion of a 19th-Century Miwok village--consisting of a cedar bark house and a cotton branch sunshade--will be the setting for typical Miwok activities. Corn processing, bow and arrow making, basket-weaving, soaproot brush-making and games will be demonstrated by members of the Miwok tribe.

In addition, native foods, storytelling, craft demonstrations, dance and music performances, films and other activities can be found on the museum grounds. Shuttle bus service is available and a modest entrance fee includes admission to the museum and current exhibitions. Information: (213) 221-2164.

Programmed in conjunction with the Mexican-American holiday, “Day of The Dead” celebrates the continuing life cycle with a day-long workshop led by artist Linda Vallejo, at the Woman’s Building, Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Bring family photographs, candles, flowers, fruit and special offerings. Cost: $15 including supplies.

The “Day of the Dead” is also being celebrated Nov. 2 at the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department’s Photography Center, 412 S. Park View St., from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., with a special exhibition, music, food and a performance by a break-dancing group.

Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions is holding its sixth annual benefit art auction on Friday at the Park Plaza Hotel, near Otis/Parsons. Catering is by Rococo, and special libations are provided courtesy of Domain Chardon and Cointreau America, beginning at 6 p.m. in tandem with the silent auction.

The silent auction will be followed by a live auction at 7:30 p.m., conducted by Rupert W. Fennell, West Coast director of Sotheby’s. Information and ticket reservations: (213) 660-0104.

An art auction benefiting the restoration efforts of Grandma Prisbrey’s Bottle Village, under the sponsorship of the Preserve Bottle Village Committee, is set for Nov. 2 at the Design Center, 433 S. Spring St. Tickets are $30 per person. Information: (805) 495-1234.