International Society of Altar Making


"A house without an altar is ungrounded." We must ask our Ancestors to protect us, to guide us, to reach  us, and to raise us to understand the creative intelligence and life force within us.  Shonna McDaniel's

 Altar-maker/Curator Andrea Jennifer "YaYa" Porras

International Society of Altar-Making Artists construct. Temporary installations curated by altar makers drawing on personal history. Envisioned to evoke the transformative value of historical and contemporary cultural traditions, MAP's Gallery uses the power of myth, stories, and imagination to give voice to the universality of cultural traditions.

City of Altars Installation, SOJO Museum Sacramento CA  Dec 2023

 Altar-maker Curator Andrea Jennifer "YaYa" Porras was an artist and assistant to the Map Gallery, where she was mentored and guided by master artist/Altar Maker Michelle Walker. YaYa, in her own right, has studied the traditions of her ancestry; she is an Aztecan dancer, an African-modern dancer, actress, poet, and altar artist from Sacramento, California.



Tribute to Jose Montoya at the Galleria Posada, Sacramento, CA, 2013

From 2006 until Its closing in March of 2013, the MAP Gallery consisted of temporary installations curated by Founder and Executive Director Michelle Walker, the Artistic Director of the Gallery and Founder of the International Society of Altar Making. She has facilitated altar-doing workshops since 1980. Michelle drew from her New Orleans ancestry and her interests in Ndebele, Hopi, Bon Po, Tibetan Tantric, and Kundalini philosophies and practices; she integrated those elements into her personal altars and altar-making over the years.
Caryl Henry Alexander, Clinton MD, June 2023
Alpha Bruton, Juniper's Garden Brandywine MD, June 2023

Shonna McDaniel's, Altar Installation Curator 
Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum, Sacramento, CA  2023

HOST: Samaria Marley Project Oasis in the Woods, June 2023

Gabrielle Gilliam, Project Oasis in the Woods, 2023

Chantel Bennett,  Project Oasis in the Woods, June 2023


ARCHIVED PROJECTS

Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA, April 2023



 "Passing the Flame" Installation in Auburn, CA, May 2013


Altar Installation, Eastern Illinois University, Gallery at the Tarble Art Center, Dec 2013
Banner Installation Brandywine, MD June 2023

Grandmother's Ancestral Tree, Brandywine, MD, June 2023



"What Not Shelf," City of Altars Kwanzaa Installation, Sacramento, CA  December 2023