This beautiful 19th century building located in the hills just outside of Oaxaca City was once a textile factory, converted into an art center. The innovative ecological renovation was spearheaded by the famous Oaxacan Zapotec painter Francisco Toledo.The space hosts exhibits, concerts, and dance performances. There is a gravity-powered water system that feeds gorgeous ponds keeping the entire space wonderfully cool. There is an art paper factory on an adjacent property that once housed a hydroelectric plant, also a project of Toledo who died in 2019.

The exhibit in the huge exhibition space at CaSa is titled The poet and the artist, Seamus Heaney & Jan Hendrix in Yagul. It is a stunning collaboration between the poet and the artist rendered in monumental tapestries, silk screens, and serigraphs.

Close up of the tapestry stitching.

A huge ballroom is the venue for large gathering, galas and dance performances.

Etchings on colored paper were pasted on the windows.

The Taller Paper (Paper Art Workshop) was another of Francisco Toledo’s projects. This co-op of artists aims to educate people on how to make contaminant free paper art and artifacts.

Memorial for Francisco Toledo who died in 2019.

The paper making studio.

Flowers, plants, and minerals are used to color the paper which is made from renewable natural resources like bark, berries, and mica, all found locally.

Waiting out in the street for a taxi we noticed a tiny restaurant called El Cometat with an unusual mural. Interesting art can be found anywhere in Oaxaca.