Casa Gallina

Casa Gallina is a creative, nonprofit organization in Mexico dedicated to advancing environmental preservation and the cultural expression of local communities across the country. We foster strong connections to the natural world and indigenous cultures starting with the community-driven experiences in Mexico City’s Santa María la Ribera neighborhood and beyond to other urban and rural areas of the country. It operates as a vibrant cultural laboratory, crafting innovative projects that blend art with community engagement to preserve the environment, build social connections, and increase education on traditional cultural practices. Casa Gallina believes that when neighbors have the time and space to build intentional connections, they build empathy for one another and can collaborate to create projects to advance the common good.

Casa Gallina began in 2013 as an art exhibition space in a historic home in the Santa María la Ribera neighborhood of Mexico City. Over the past decade, the space has transformed to host a range of programming that creates a dialogue among neighbors to exchange perspectives on cultural issues and actions in daily life through art.

Visitors and guests are welcomed to the community space as if they were coming to one’s own casa, home. Casa Gallina translates directly to “Hen House” in English. While the name began as a tongue-in-cheek reference by the organization’s founder, the name speaks to the collaborative nature of its programming and the connection to nature in an urban environment.

Since 2019, Casa Gallina has expanded through strategic partnerships with allied organizations across Mexico to activate new communities around environmental preservation and cultural expression.

Rooted in the Santa María la Ribera neighborhood of Mexico City, Casa Gallina’s impact extends through 21 states across Mexico through strong partnerships with local schools, museums, and other strategic allies. Allies include a network of community organizations, public and private institutions, and collectives in Aguascalientes, Campeche, Chiapas, Ciudad de México, Estado de México, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Michoacán, Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, Quintana Roo, Sonora, Tabasco, Tlaxcala, Veracruz and Yucatán.

Thousands of neighbors in the Santa María la Ribera community visit Casa Gallina each year, with programming designed for residents of all ages (0-90 years old) to engage with and enjoy. Casa Gallina’s community spaces and programming is especially beneficial for low-income residents who would otherwise struggle to access services like the computer lab, library, and healthy cooking classes.

Beyond the physical center, the majority (65%) of Casa Gallina’s program participants are youth under 20 years old; by focusing on leadership development and education, Casa Gallina ensures that future generations grow up with an intentional understanding of their impact on the world around them. Casa Gallina’s focus on preserving indigenous traditions is also particularly relevant to indigenous communities that face intersecting challenges in Mexican society.

Casa Gallina’s overarching goal is to foster strong connections to the natural world and indigenous cultures in order to advance environmental preservation and cultural expression throughout Mexico. In pursuit of this goal, each Casa Gallina program creates collaborative experiences and dialogue through art that inspires people to take action to improve the world around them. Casa Gallina’s diverse programs seek to achieve the following objectives:

1) Increase neighbors’ empathy for and understand of one another through community events, programs and art exhibits so they can collaborate to improve daily life and advance the common good

2) Empower educators to integrate context-relevant environmental perspectives into lesson plans to enhance young people’s critical thinking skills and expose students to information on nature and the environment

3) Operate an innovative laboratory to meet the needs of all community members, including youth, the elderly, and marginalized indigenous populations

4) Provide a methodological framework and for allied organizations to adapt and extend Casa Gallina’s impact throughout the country to strengthen the social fabric, promote environmental sustainability, and foster social cohesion

Our work helps build the resiliency of the community, increase collaborative learning, and encourage connections among community members and allied organizations — especially young people, educators, the elderly, and indigenous communities — to drive caretaking and connection to the natural world.