We plan to accept new applications beginning in January 2024. No application fee will be required; a $2 USD processing fee, only.
Meals are on your own with space designated onsite for your food's storage and preparation. Meals can also be purchased at cafeterias or restaurants within walking distance of your accommodations. Or delivered, usually for less than one U.S. dollar.
Private bedroom in 2BR suite with shared bathroom. Entire 2BR suite available for one person or one couple, upon request.
Our Founder and Program Director
Intercultural
Exploring Art and Culture in Costa Rica
Three meals daily, Monday through Friday. Special diet requests can often be accommodated but must be arranged for during the application process.
A private bedroom and shared bathroom (a private bathroom is sometimes available upon request).
The home's kitchen is available for you to store/prepare/cook your own food if you like.
Home Stay with Host Family Holistic Wellness Center
Royce Clay Slape Seiger is a dual citizen; the U.S.A. by birth, Costa Rica by naturalization. A proud moment was being invited to lunch in the home of José León Sánchez, a Costa Rican novelist and the author of "Isla de Los Hombres Solos" ("Island of Lonely Men") also translated to English as "God Was Looking The Other Way." (Hint: in photos at left, Royce isn't wearing white.)
OUR ACCOMMODATIONS
Both options are within a 10-minute walk from San Ramon Center.
Welcome to Costa Rica's premier Artist Residency since 2007. Accepting new applications beginning January 2024.
Royce spent his childhood in a railroad town deep in the Colorado Rockies. A lifelong lover of the arts, he declared himself a poet at age five and was from his earliest years a voracious reader of world literature. His other passions even then included drawing, painting, and photography, as well as singing and playing guitar, piano, and various other instruments by ear.
Meanwhile, he dreamed of running away with the circus. An early memory: spinning the globe in a Social Studies class, stopping it where his finger landed, frustrating his USA-focused teacher with questions, like, "Who lives there? What language do they speak?" And indeed there was adventure in the cards, as he would spend his teens on a homestead in the Alaskan outback.
As a young adult Royce settled in Portland, Oregon for his college and early workforce years as a medical social worker. Over time his Spanish has gotten quite good, his French is improving. and frequent travels have so far taken him to upwards of a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, and the Northern and Central Americas.
In 2002 Royce was invited to Costa Rica for a yearlong internship with the Director of what was then Costa Rica's only artist-in-residence program. Upon successful completion, he was offered a full-time live-in position as Director and Writer-in-Residence, which he held for the next four years. When that program floundered after the passing of its founder, Royce left in 2007, to found Intercultural Odysseys Costa Rica, S.A.
OUR ORGANIZATION
Intercultural ODYSSEYS Costa Rica is a civic, social, and non-governmental organization (NGO) founded by Royce Clay Slape Seiger, himself a lifelong artist. In the belief that creating and sharing art across borders is one of our most powerful tools for opening up human hearts and challenging the barriers that separate them. We couldn't be prouder that between 60 and 75% of our proceeds go directly to the local community we serve.
"Apart from sentiment, quite as a matter of simple realistic fact, art outlasts all other forms of human endeavor. Kingdoms, empires and civilizations rise and fall; their laws, their political organizations, their religions vanish; their customs and all their ways of life disappear from the face of the earth; but the art that they have managed to create remains." -- Ernest Sutherland Bates
A FEW OF OUR PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS:
Mi casa es tu casa: You have free access to all of your Home Stay's common spaces, including indoor and outdoor areas, for workspace and leisure.
Workspaces and salons within the Holistic Wellness Center can be made available. Please request this need during the application process.
Weekly laundry services, house-cleaning, and change of bed & bath linens.
Residency Fee is calculated differently than for our Holistic Wellness Center option (see Residency Details page).
ODYSSEYS
Mini fridge and small, comfortable sitting area.
Access to the Center's ample common areas, workspaces, and indoor garden spots.
Two spacious salons for yoga and/or dance/choreography practice.
Weekly laundry services, house-cleaning, and change of bed & bath linens.
Residency Fee is calculated differently than for our Home Stay/Host Family option (see Residency Details page).
OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS: President: Royce Clay Slape Seiger Secretary: Roberto Quirós Coronado Treasurer: Jesús Salvador
Fiscal: Olga López Flores
Attorney: Juan José Briceño Benavides