WEEK WORKSHOPS
Forthcoming
October, 2024 with Mariana Garibay Raeke
When we write things down, and when we talk to others, ideas get organized, intentions become clearer, and thoughts materialize. Language allows us to release what is within so that it can manifest, transform, and grow; it also provides a distance that can help us better understand what we do. This workshop consists of a series of personal exercises, group conversations, individual meetings, and presentations designed to question and challenge our creative process while developing our ability to communicate in verbal and written forms. During this week we will examine the ways objects communicate, the place that making has in our life, and how what we do connects to larger conversations. In the last two sessions, participants will share the result of these investigations in the form of a text paired with images of their work and receive feedback from the group.
The program is open (and encouraged!) to artists working in all disciplines! Scholarships available.
Workshop Archive
Material Resources & Ecology with Julio Barrita
December 2023
This workshop culminates a year of collaboration and discussion between local projects and artists who work at the intersection of contemporary art practices and ecology, offering a rhizomatic network of knowledge that invites us to question the impact artists have on the environment, both as creative and destructive forces. Through dialogues, studio visits, hikes, and shared practices, this five-day workshop approaches the concept of ecology not only from the perspective of caring for the environment but as a broad platform for the exchange of individual and collective experiences. With this program, we question traditional institutions as spaces for collecting and preserving knowledge. Instead, we approach gathering and exploration as artistic practices building our own traveling museum containing the results of the work and conversations that we develop as a group during the workshop.
Conversations on Print
August 2022, August 2023 with Marco Velasco Martínez (Espacio Pino Suárez)
A week-long workshop exploring and experimenting with print through the context of the city. This program offers a collective experience to support the development of personal creative work through workshop visits, hands-on studio practices with various techniques, and discussions exploring the local socio-political role of print. With reference to Oaxaca’s comprehensive, historical, and often quite fluid relationship to printmaking, this workshop allows participants to reexamine their individual practice as a resource to connect and communicate ideas individually and collectively.
Community, Creative Practice & Care
April 2022, June 2023
A program learning, connecting and discussing with collectives, organizations and individuals using various forms of creative practice to cultivate support, care and connection in their communities. Creative focuses include design, movement, theater, contemporary art, artisanal craft and agriculture. We encourage the attendance of participants who are interested in learning about, sharing and discussing experiences in this field. This workshop is part of a larger initiative connecting and sharing with socially driven creative organizations, collectives and artists and in Oaxaca.
The Language of Making
February 2023 with Mariana Garibay Raeke
When we write things down, and when we talk to others, ideas get organized, intentions become clearer, and thoughts materialize. Language allows us to release what is within so that it can manifest, transform, and grow; it also provides a distance that can help us better understand what we do. This workshop consists of a series of personal exercises, group conversations, individual meetings, and presentations designed to question and challenge our creative process while developing our ability to communicate in verbal and written forms. During this week we will examine the ways objects communicate, the place that making has in our life, and how what we do connects to larger conversations. In the last two sessions, participants will share the result of these investigations in the form of a text paired with images of their work and receive feedback from the group.
Conversations on Clay
February 2020, October 2021, February 2022. October 2022
with Mujer Barro
A five day program exploring and connecting with processes, people & places influenced and driven by clay as a material, resource and way of life.
We will use this week to pay attention to clay in all of its forms, including origins and place, form and shape, utility and design, and to the ongoing use of barro as creative and personal expression.
Material Studies
July 2022
Studying local & natural materials (including clay, corn, agave, cochinilla as well as water and the physical body) and their various creative and practical uses. We delve into the tactile, historical, and personal elements of various materials through perspectives and work of collaborating artists, artisans, designers, and chefs. We are interested in the interdisciplinary and culturally specific uses of and connections to each material and maker, as well as critical conversation surrounding the opportunities and repercussions tied to the use of natural materials.
Conversations on Clay
February 2020, with Alicia Jimenez and Simone Bodmer- Turner
This program looks specifically at the processes, people, communities & places influenced and driven by clay as a material and resource.
Artists & ceramicists Simone Bodmer-Turner (New York) and Alicia Jiménez (Oaxaca) were co-leaders for this weekend — providing an intimate look at their practices, work and how they have each been influenced by tradition, place, and contemporary art & design. Visits with other local artisans and artists working with clay allow for comparative perspectives and processes.
April 29- May 5, 2024
A week-long workshop exploring and experimenting with print through the context of the city. Hosted in collaboration with Marco Velasco Martínez (Espacio Pino Suárez & Ana Hernández and José Ángel Santiago (Taller Río Blanco), this program offers a collective experience to support the development of personal creative work through workshop visits, hands-on studio practices with various techniques, and discussions exploring the local socio-political role of print. With reference to Oaxaca’s comprehensive, historical, and often quite fluid relationship to printmaking, this workshop allows participants to reexamine their individual practice as a resource to connect and communicate ideas individually and collectively.
The program is open (and encouraged!) to artists working in all disciplines! Scholarships available.
Arts & Lectures
February 2019
with guests Maddalena Forcella, Aurelia Arroyo Nieto, Isabel Sanchez, Paulina Garcia, Isabel Rojas, Hagar Avrim, Alicia Jiménez
Arts & Lectures
December 2018
with guests Mujeres del Barro Rojo, Isabel Sanchez, Paulina Garcia, Ana Paula Fuentes, Alicia Jiménez, Evelyn Méndez, Celina del Carmen Mendez Altamirano, Aurelia Arroyo Nieto.
Arts & Lectures
October 2018
with guests Don Epifanio Ruiz Pérez, Reyna Ruiz Pérez, Francisco Martínez, Paulina Garcia, Ana Paula Fuentes, Alicia Jiménez, Liliana Díaz, Celina del Carmen Mendez Altamirano, Aurelia Arroyo Nieto
Arts & Lectures
July 2018
with guests Eric Chavez, Elsa Chavez, Ana Paula Fuentes, Paulina Garcia, Francisco Martínez, Alicia Jiménez, Evelyn Méndez, Niki Nakazawa, Daniel Brena.
Arts & Lectures
April 2018
with guests Ana Paula Fuentes, Aurora Toledo, Alicia Jiménez, Evelyn Méndez, Hagar Aviram.
Arts & Lectures
February 2018
with guests Ana Paula Fuentes, Madda Forcella, Raul Cabra, Fred Jiménez, Juan Pablo Hernandez, Paulina Garcia, Alicia Jiménez, Hagar Aviram.
Arts & Lectures
September 2017
with guests Jorge Rodrigo Ocampo, Daniel Brena, Graciela Angeles, Ana Paula Fuentes, Evelyn Méndez Maldonado.
Residencia Azul (Writing Workshop)
March 2017, with Molly Prentiss
This intensive week-long program combines traditional workshop methods with site-specific studies to deepen students’ relationship with both their work and their surroundings. Mornings are spent in the writing workshop, where students have the opportunity to give and receive feedback on original work, participate in experimental writing exercises in the classroom and around the city, and engage in round table discussions prompted daily by the teacher. Afternoons are open for personal work time. We meet in the evenings for scheduled events, communal dinner and discussion.
Residencia Textil – On Textiles and How we Exist
February 2017, with Owyn Ruck
This residency /workshop moves away from active textile production and instruction, and instead provides a unique opportunity to examine our interest in “making” from a deeper psychological, cultural, and spiritual level -- exploring textiles as an embodiment of creative thought, and an avenue for personal and cultural connection.
Making with our hands as means of expression is a universal human endeavor inspired by an essential creative energy. Fibers we spin and threads we weave are markers of time, place, and culture and allow us an immediate creative outlet, while simultaneously building a long-term collective memory. Through in-depth conversations with artisans and artists, lectures, group dialogues and hands-on experimentation, we explore how textile traditions, natural fibers and our own personal habits of making reflect broader values and human needs — individual creation and community connection, physical action and mindful meditation, cultural tradition and social innovation, utilitarian use and emotional attachment.
Residencia Botanica
December 2016, with Saipua & Eleven36
This residency offered artists and others a space to expand botanical and floral knowledge and regain creative inspiration through guided and independent interaction with botanical diversity, developing a deeper sense of connection to process, materials, and community.
La Comida
March 2018, with Joint Venture & Anna Dunn
MFK Fisher writes: “There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine drunk. And that is my answer, when people ask me: Why do you write about hunger, and not wars or love?”
This five day program takes a closer look at “the meal” breaking down and examining elements of community and land that come together to create a meal, as well as the unique connections and intrinsic knowledge accessed through the acts of cooking, eating and conversation.