Topa Institute envisions a thriving, peaceful planet filled with creativity, connection, and care. We honor global traditions of perennial wisdom that create peace, healing, art, and learning.
The Topa Institute is a retreat center set atop a tranquil, awe-inspiring ridge in the Topatopa Mountains. We host creative workshops, classes, and gatherings facilitated by leading teachers, artists, and culture makers in their fields.
The Institute joins together three deeply interconnected areas of programming: Arts & Culture, Nature Connection, and Holistic Education. Each unit advances our collective mission, engaging timeless practices of community building and deep listening.
For over 45 years, our founding organizations have developed innovative cultural, environmental, and social-emotional practices in community, now offered through our three units.
Zimzalla
Arts & Culture
Zimzalla is a creative community hungry to uncover and reveal the alchemy of unsung and underrepresented cultures through a variety of artistic and scholarly pursuits. Learn more about our arts & culture events, workshops, and residential opportunities.
Dragon Ridge
Land Sanctuary
The 36-acre land sanctuary located in the Upper Ojai Valley, California — the historical home of Indigenous people devoted to creative practices in art, agriculture, and wisdom. At Dragon Ridge Land Sanctuary we honor and continue this work through our land-based offers such as permaculture, nature immersion, and Indigenous wisdom.
Teaching Tree
Educational Center
Teaching Tree is our center for social-emotional and environmental education practices. Combining deep listening practices and nature-based activities, our program’s purpose is to forge genuine, trusting relationships between people and nature. Learn more about council trainings, rites of passage programs marking life transitions, and team-building workshops.
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