Itinerary in progress
Five days making art in the loudest, brightest city in the hemisphere. No instruction, no skill required, no one grading you. Just show up and make something.
Nothing on this page is locked in. We are building it with the people who come to our community art events around Chicago, and the community decides when this one runs and whether it runs before Michigan. Come to an event to tell us when and where, and to join the list and hear about the launch first.
What this actually is
A small group spends five days sketching in Coyoacán, painting on rooftops in Roma Norte, and chasing color through the Centro, with group dinners, walking tours, and a couple of nights out. Nobody's teaching. You just make stuff. The point is the doing, not the masterpiece.
The original plan put this in early November, the week right after the city finishes turning itself into an art project, with the marigolds still up and the crowds flown home. That is one of the things still open. The season and the dates get set by the people who show up to our events, not by us.
Seven ways to make art
No skill needed for any of them. Just show up and try. Here's everything you'll get your hands on:
What we are planning to include
This is the working list. Some of it will change as we hear from people.
Handpicked hotel, shared room, walkable to the parks, the galleries, and the good tacos.
Canvas, easels, paint, brushes, aprons. We buy it, you keep what you make.
Your own painted boat through the canals at golden hour, with mariachi drifting past and food on board.
Every morning after you arrive (day one, you're flying in, so the welcome dinner is your first meal with us). Lunches are on your own.
A welcome dinner, a farewell dinner, and the picnic on the trajinera. The other nights are yours to explore.
Centro Histórico murals and Coyoacán, with guides.
An oil figure-painting class in Chapultepec (folklórico dancer, castle behind her) and an acrylic paint & sip on a Roma rooftop. All materials included.
Two low-key group activities. No winners, just fun.
A group morning at the Palacio de Bellas Artes: Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros, under an Art Deco dome.
Performance art, Mexico City style, masks included. Plus a night out after.
A folklórico dancer poses in full skirt with the castle behind her while you paint in oil. Materials and easels provided.
The five days as drawn up so far
A proposal, not a schedule. Tell us what you would cut and what you would add.
Fly in on your own schedule, check in, take the altitude easy with a loose evening walk around the neighborhood. Then a welcome dinner in Roma Norte to meet everyone.
A walking tour of the Centro Histórico built around the murals: Bellas Artes, the SEP courtyards, the Palacio Nacional stairwell. Free afternoon. Then ringside at Arena México for lucha libre, which is performance art the way this city does it best, mask included.
Your morning is yours after breakfast: sleep in, wander Condesa, or go see Frida's house on your own. In the afternoon, an oil figure-painting session in Chapultepec: a folklórico dancer poses in full skirt with the castle behind her while you paint. The rest of the afternoon is yours in the park: keep painting, walk up to the castle, or sit with a coffee and sketch whoever wanders past.
A group morning at the Palacio de Bellas Artes: Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros on the upper floors, Tiffany glass curtain downstairs. Then south to Coyoacán, where we break into teams, each chasing a different color through the markets and side streets with cameras (no winners, just a fun way to really see the place), and a walking tour of the old village at dusk. Back in Roma after dark for a paint & sip on a rooftop: acrylic, mezcal in hand, the skyline in front of you.
Down to the canals for a private trajinera: food, drinks, a mariachi boat that pulls alongside, and sketchbooks out for a slow afternoon of urban sketching from the water. Then the throwdown: everyone lays their sketchbooks out on the table and we share the lot. A farewell dinner back in the city to close it out.
Optional sketch-and-coffee in Parque México for the early risers, then out on your own flights.
How to get on it
We are not taking deposits. This itinerary runs when the community says it should, and the people who decide that are the ones who turn up to our community art events around Chicago. Portrait parties, ballerina figure drawing, seasonal one-offs, all around the city.
Come to one, tell us when this should run and where it should go, and join the list so you hear about the launch first.
See upcoming events →Here is what happens between now and a date:
Good questions
No, and that's the whole point. There's no instruction and nobody's judging. If you can hold a brush you're qualified. The trip is built for people who want to make things for fun, not improve a craft.
Chicagoans aged 18 to 39, or over 39 if you have been to one of our Chicago art events. It is a small group and keeping it to one city is what makes the friendships last past the flight home, so we do check. Everything else is open: no art experience, no existing connection to anyone else going.
Responses so far lean toward Michigan or Mexico City in spring or summer, which is where the average of current feedback sits. Once more comes in we will set the exact date and announce it.
We looked hard at it when the original plan was early November. The holiday falls Nov 1 and 2, and that week the city is extraordinary and completely full: hotel rates roughly double, and the F1 Grand Prix usually lands on top of it.
Going a few days later would get you the same city with the decorations still up, far smaller crowds at the museums and in Coyoacán, and a price that leaves room for everything we actually came to do. That said, the season is one of the open questions right now, so if you have a view on it, bring it to an event.
So you can use your own miles, fly from wherever, and arrive early or stay late. Target arrival and departure times go out once there is a date. Nothing is booked yet, so do not buy a fare on the strength of this page.
Flights and airport transfers. Travel insurance, which we strongly recommend and don't sell. Visas or entry requirements. Any meal not listed in the itinerary. Personal expenses and tips. Optional add-ons on your free afternoons. Local hotel or tourist taxes if the property charges them at check-in.
Everything else is planned to be in the price: your room, your art supplies, the models, the guided sessions, the listed meals, and ground transport during the trip. Pricing gets published when the trip opens.
Not set. We have run the numbers on the hotel, the guides, the materials and the meals, but the final itinerary decides the final price, and the itinerary is still moving. We will publish it when the trip opens rather than quote you something we might have to change.
No. There is nothing to pay for yet and we are not taking deposits on a trip that does not have a date. The way to be first in line is to join the list at one of our events.
You'll need a valid passport. US, Canadian, UK, EU, and most other passport holders don't need a tourist visa for a stay this short, and the old paper FMM has gone digital at most airports, so entry is usually just the passport and a stamp. Check the official requirements before you book flights; we'll remind you by email too.
Mexico City sits at about 7,350 feet. Most people feel it as mild breathlessness on stairs for a day or two, nothing more. We keep day one deliberately loose for that reason: drink a lot of water, go easy on the mezcal the first night, and you'll be fine by Friday. Weather depends on the season we land on, and a packing list goes out once there is a date.
The neighborhoods this trip lives in, Roma Norte, Condesa, Coyoacán, the Centro, San Ángel, are busy, walkable, and full of visitors and locals at all hours. We use Uber or arranged transport instead of street taxis, we stay together at night, and we brief the group on the normal city stuff on day one. Use the sense you'd use in any big city and it's a straightforward place to be.
Four to twenty Chicagoans who want five days of making things. Rooms are planned as shared twin beds, same gender, with a short survey pairing you with someone whose sleep schedule looks like yours.