Serra Retreat Grounds - Malibu, CA
Free Weekend and Day Retreats at Serra Retreat Center
Healing Through Art and Journaling
for Los Angeles Wildfire Survivors
Artist Betty Rosen invites you to a series of free mosaic-making workshops, expressive arts retreats, and community rituals of renewal offered to those affected by the Los Angeles wildfires. Hosted at the Serra Retreat Center in Malibu, this three-year residency, THIS TENDER GROUND offers a place to rest, restore, and reimagine together through the healing language of art.
Our long term project, inspired by the AIDS QUILT, will be a community driven public art piece, to commemorate and offer healing from the wildfires.
This is a three year residency. We begin with two upcoming events.
Free Day Retreat
Thursday, July 31 9am-4pm
Free Weekend Retreat
August 15th - 17th
See below or events page for details.
To reserve your spot please make a $20 donation with Serra via their website:
https://www.serraretreat.com/this-tender-ground
If you would like to support our work over the next 3 years, you can make a tax deductible donation at the link above by choosing THIS TENDER GROUND. We thank you.
Gentle Arrival at 9am - Speed limits on PCH can be 25mph still.
Please check in at the main office. Enjoy the Grounds at Serra. Walk the Labyrinth. Gawk at the views of the Pacific Ocean. Have a cup of tea in their dining room.
10am-12pm - All activities in the SERRA ROOM (near the dining room)
Build Your Own…. Bouquet, Bracelet, Lantern… Or all 3!
Introduction to Creative Journaling
12pm - 1pm. Lunch provided in the Serra Dining Room
1pm - 3pm
Beginning Mosaics - Make a mosaic picture frame. Learn to use cutting tools (hand nippers) or choose from precut materials. Explore color. Tessarae (anything used to make mosaics) as Eye Candy! Explore Shapes, Angles…get lost in the art making process.
3pm-4pm - SERRA ROOM
Movement and Reflection
Stretch, Dance, or not… Email me a song to add to our Tender Ground Playlist to keep us uplifted and connected. betty.mosaicalchemy@gmail.com
Short journaling exercise and conversation to complete the day.
Take a weekend for yourself, yes, just YOU. No cooking, No Social Media, No work. No fretting. No paperwork. No decisions…
Experience the simple, empowering, healing and fun work of Dr Lucia Cappachione’s CREATIVE JOURNAL EXPRESSIVE ARTS. Check out Lucia's Amazon Author Page to explore her many publications.
Explore an introduction to mosaic making. Betty has been a professional mosaic artist for 20+years.
Enjoy the beauty of Malibu, California’s SERRA RETREAT CENTER
Leave with tools and materials to continue your creative practice. Or not…
Enjoy our special presenters sharing their artistic crafts, tips, and stories of their creative paths.
Make new friends and/or get reacquainted with your BFF inside of you.
All activities in the Serra Room
8 - 9:00am - Breakfast-
9:30-11am - Movement & Spiritual Scavenger Hunt (Weather Permitting)
12 - 1:00pm - Lunch
1:30-2:30pm -
3 -5:00pm - Special Presenters: Doug Hedenberg, Elizabeth Bogen Hedenberg and Dawn Mendelson will guide us in making Mosaic Pots. Adorn the outside of your ceramic pot with broken plates, glass, ceramic etc.
6 - 7:00pm - Dinner
7:00 - 8:15 - Laughing Yoga with spiritual practitioner Martin Weich. Yes, Laughing Yoga is a practice and one we all need so much right now.
8 - 9:00am - Breakfast
9:00am - Checkout: Remove belongings from your room to cars, place bedsheets in hall, and return to Rindge Room
9:30am - 11:30am - Grout you Mosaic Pot. Dawn, Lizzy, Doug and I will assist you.
Doug will also assist you in planting soil and seedlings in your pot to take with you once the grout dries.
11:30pm - 12pm -CJEA Journal Reflection and Evaluation
12:00pm - 1pm Lunch
Retreat Concludes
You are welcome to enjoy the Serra Retreat’s grounds for the afternoon as long as we are respectful of others at retreat center.
Single rooms, with bed and desk and lamps, adjoining bath with shower, Serra provides simple towels, soap, linens.
(5 Meals, cafeteria style).
Friday: Dinner
Saturday: Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner
Sunday: Breakfast
There is a fridge in the Serra Room where we will gather. Feel free to bring snacks to share or special foods for those with food allergies or other preferences.
Creativity Stations to Explore -
Coloring, Mandala Rock Painting, Flowers, Collage/Lantern making etc etc. Every workshop will have different Stations.
Journaling and Art Materials
By consent, Email list to stay in touch with other participants.
Learn and play with these tools and more. :)
Glass, plates, ceramic tile, smalti, etc. Play with these materials and more.
(left) Lucia Capacchione (right) Betty Rosen at Serra in 2022
Hosted by Betty Rosen CJEA Practitioner & Mosaic Artist.
Betty Rosen has had successful careers in Film Production, Music Publishing and as a Teaching Artist specializing in mosaics and community built projects and now as a CJEA Practitioner.
Resilience, Music, Art making, Scribbling, Spending Plans, Nature, Intimate conversations and Belly Laughs are the tools we will share and practice together so we can identify and pursue the changes we crave.
About the Space - Serra Retreat Center
Serene, rustic, and a home for the Friars. It’s important to us to show respect for their practices and this sacred space. This is not an opulent Malibu retreat; this is a simple, beautiful place for reflection and residence for the Friars. It’s stunning. Quiet. And a rare opportunity to stay in Malibu at an affordable rate.
Please visit their website if you have any further questions. You will be more comfortable if you leave your inner foodie at home, and there are many Malibu eateries to take advantage of on either side of the retreat. There is a refrigerator to store snacks and specialty items.
Overseeing Malibu Beach from Serra Retreat Center
Level of walking moderate to extreme. There are stairs everywhere. *
https//www.serraretreat.com/
Community Dining Room
I have been there for personal retreats many times since COVID; they take safety precautions very seriously.
Please don’t come if you are experiencing any symptoms or have traveled less than two weeks prior. Proof of vaccination required by Serra Retreat Center. Social distancing and masking will be in place when inside.
Sunset over the Pacific Ocean
All activities in the Rindge Room and courtyard. Beautiful tiles everywhere!
2022 Retreat; CJEA Exercise in Rindge Room
Mosaic Alchemy’s Celebrating Circles Retreat 2022
Pioneer of CJEA work, Dr. Lucia Capacchione, and others, participating in non dominant hand journaling exercise.