Indigenous communities have long practiced worldview-shifting as a form of survival—carrying memory, adaptation, and futurity together. Grounded in Maya cosmology and the Oaxacan Indigenous framework of Comunalidad, Casa Ceiba fosters translocal kinship, cultural revitalization, and intergenerational creative connection.

The name invites us to a place of rest, vision, and rooted imagination. By centering the Ceiba, the sacred world tree that holds the earthly realm between the Heart of Sky and Heart of Earth, Casa Ceiba is a bridge between rooted place and diasporic return, honoring those who remain and those finding their way back.

Casa Ceiba is more than an artist residency—it is a cultural incubator for diasporic world-builders.

While many residencies prioritize output, Casa Ceiba centers rest, remembrance, strategy, and emergence. Participants receive cultural mentorship and immersive learning experiences that support creative practice, community organizing, and values-aligned offerings.

From weaving to world-building, Casa Ceiba is a space where ideas grow into life-affirming ecosystems.

Casa Ceiba is intentionally small, relational, and non-extractive.

• Residencies are co-designed

• Exchange is rooted in reciprocity and cultural protocol

• Participants are supported, mentored, and accompanied in traditional ways

• Local practitioners are fairly compensated and centered

We prioritize depth over scale, care over urgency, and relationship over transaction.

Casa Ceiba welcomes Indigenous, Black, Central American/Mesoamerican, and other diasporic artists, creatives, and organizers, with a particular focus on queer, trans, Two Spirit, and women creatives.

This space is for those seeking reconnection—to land, lineage, creative practice, and Indigenous ways of knowing—whether you are refining a vision, dreaming into a new offering, or walking the path of return.

Curious who's come before you? You can meet some of the artists and organizers who've walked this path before you here.

Residencies are 1–4 weeks and are shaped through a 1:1 consultation. Offerings may include:

• Lodging and a fully stocked shared kitchen in a quiet private home with studio space

• Immersive experiences with Maya cultural practitioners

• Engagement with textiles, foodways, weaving, herbalism, storytelling, and ancestral arts

• Optional mentorship, coaching, or incubation of creative or cultural enterprises

Each residency is shaped in relationship, with attention to capacity, intention, and reciprocity.

The Studio

The shared studio at Casa Ceiba is a room built for making — spacious enough to hold a full day of creative work, simple enough to leave room for what you bring.

Two folding tables anchor the space, ready for painting, writing, mapping ideas, or spreading out a project mid-process. You'll find natural mineral paints, watercolors, color pencils, brushes, yarn, and construction paper on hand, alongside a whiteboard and projector for teaching, presenting, or thinking out loud. A small library of books on Guatemala and Maya culture lives here too, offered as company and context for whatever you're working through.

The room flexes with your rhythm. Four folding chairs and a sofa bed couch offer places to sit, read, or rest between sessions; petates and a yoga mat make space for movement, grounding, or gathering on the floor. English teaching supplies are also available, for residents whose reciprocity offerings include language exchange.

This is a studio designed to hold your process, not dictate it — simple materials, held with intention, in service of whatever wants to be made.

Casa Ceiba is sustained through a combination of participant contributions, partnerships, and community support. This model allows us to prioritize accessibility, fairly compensate local practitioners, and protect the relational integrity of the residency.

Support helps nourish the long-term vision of Casa Ceiba as a living, evolving ecosystem.

Scroll down to make a donation today.

Casa Ceiba is not a tourist offering. It is a community-rooted space grounded in Indigenous values, cultural protocol, and collective healing.

Together, we are weaving constellations of future-building—one rooted return at a time.