About Chez Serendip
A place to gather, create, and belong beneath the redwoods.
Chez Serendip is a regenerative cultural sanctuary tucked into the Santa Cruz Mountains. Once a family farmstead, this six-acre historic redwood property is now home to the Chez Serendip Foundation, where creativity, rest, and reconnection unfold in relationship with the land.
Here, healing is not clinical or prescriptive. It emerges through beauty, rhythm, and relationship. Through art, music, movement, time with animals, and the grounding intelligence of nature.
Through the Foundation, the property comes alive with intentional gatherings, artist residencies, retreats, and creative production. These unfold across historic homes, gardens, and purpose-built spaces, including a geodesic dome in the redwoods and an intimate music room centered around a 1902 Steinway piano. Each one holds room for solitude and shared experience alike, for deep listening, collaboration, and meaningful connection.
At its heart, Chez Serendip is a grounded place to arrive, to soften, and to remember what it feels like to belong.
Our Story & Vision
Founders Alisa Sieber and Shawn Johnson, both raised in the Bay Area, left home at 18 to serve in the military. After decades away, they felt the call to return to their roots.
In 2024, they purchased a 1921 farmhouse in Scotts Valley, dreaming of intimate concerts and family-style gatherings. When they discovered the home was once part of a larger estate, alongside a neighboring 1928 Craftsman, they seized the rare chance to reunite the original property.
Chez Serendip officially opened in July 2025, and in spring 2026 the Chez Serendip Foundation received its 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. Together, the land and the Foundation have become more than a venue. They are a living ecosystem where artistry, wellness, and stewardship thrive in reciprocity with the land.
By 2030, our vision is to be a West Coast hub for cultural production, regenerative land use, and socially conscious collaboration. A place where stories are shared, futures imagined, and beauty becomes a force for change.
Property Overview
Chez Serendip spans six acres of historic redwoods, meadows, and gardens, just minutes from Santa Cruz and within easy reach of San Francisco and San Jose.
Key spaces include:
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The 1928 Craftsman Home. A 2BR/1BA historic residence, perfect for small gatherings, receptions, and overnight stays.
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The Carriage Room. Once home to horse-drawn carriages, now being restored into a state-of-the-art recording studio and creative hub, centered around a 1920 Steinway upright piano.
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The Barn & Arena. Equestrian facilities where three horses, along with goats and chickens, are part of daily life on the land, open to photoshoots and equine experiences.
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The Lotus Dome. A 36-foot circular dome for dance, meditation, and somatic practice.
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Gardens & Grounds. Expansive outdoor gathering areas, regenerative gardens, farm-to-table harvests, and redwood forest trails.
Every corner of the land tells a story of heritage, imagination, and possibility. The land is the canvas, and the Chez Serendip Foundation is what brings it to life, making it a place to create, to gather, to heal, and to belong.
Our Founders
Values & Ethos
Chez Serendip is guided by principles that shape every experience, partnership, and event:
Regeneration Over Extraction
Healing land and people through practices that restore balance.
Place-Based Intentionality
Listening to the land, preserving heritage, and designing with reverence.
Art as Alchemy
Honoring creativity not as commodity, but as sacred offering.
Serendipity as Strategy
Making space for surprise, magic, and chance encounters.
Community Is the Medium
Building through collaboration, reciprocity, and shared ownership.
Access Through Reciprocity
Offering inclusive pathways through sliding-scale and hybrid models.
Sacred Hospitality
Welcoming each guest with care, presence, and respect.
Future-Building Through Beauty
Elevating imagination through curated spaces and experiences.
