This culminating celebration marks the end of a multi‑week community initiative dedicated to preserving Mexican traditions through free workshops in Prehispanic Ceramics, led by Samuel Tejeda, and Cartonería Mexicana, led by Ceci Tejeda. Across WPCA, Voces de la Frontera, and neighborhood sites, more than 40 participants learned ancestral techniques and created pieces that carry their stories, memories, and cultural roots. These community-made works will be exhibited alongside bodies of work by both artists, further showcasing the traditional methods they continue to steward.
Join us on September 19 for music, local vendors, and the unveiling of “Ollin,” the giant alebrije sculpture.
Ceci Tejeda
Ceci Tejeda was born and raised in Mexico City. Her parents are from Michoacán, Mexico, giving her Purepecha roots that she has admired since childhood. Having lived in Wisconsin for more than 10 years, she continues to embrace and share her heritage. Although her early years adapting to Wisconsin were challenging, she maintained her passion for creativity and continued making papier-mâché alebrijes and skulls. Her work has been featured in several exhibitions, including the Milwaukee Filmmaker Local Artist Activists show, Walker’s Point Center for the Arts (WPCA) #MKEMOVEMENTART show, and the University of Wisconsin Latinx Activism and Art Gallery. She also displayed her work at the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Day of the Dead event in 2017.
In 2025, Ceci held a solo exhibition in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, featuring large-scale pieces such as the feathered serpent, “Quetzalcoatl.” She frequently collaborates with Voces de los Artistas and has participated in local markets and festivals. She has also led alebrije workshops at WPCA and the Lynden Sculpture Garden.
Her activist art includes a life-size Our Lady of Guadalupe papier-mâché sculpture carried at a national immigrant rights march in Washington, D.C., and two large torches created for a nationwide Essential Immigrant Workers Network tour. Her piece “El Árbol de la Vida,” created during an artist residency with Water Commons, is currently on display at the Voces de la Frontera office. This movement work connects her deeply to her culture, community, and identity.
Samuel Tejeda
Samuel Tejeda is an artist and researcher whose practice engages Mesoamerican craft traditions across clay, metal, wood, bone, amber, and leather. Tejeda trained in ceramics and jewelry at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes and studied ethnology at the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia. Tejeda’s practice integrates formal experimentation with anthropological inquiry to explore Indigenous technologies, cosmologies, and ritual. Tejeda has exhibited nationally and internationally, and leads Ichtli Maori Studio in Mexico City, dedicated to ceramic research, teaching, and creation.