Meet the Summer Artmonks
The 2017 Art Monastic Laboratory is a 10-week immersive experience in social sculpture. This Lab investigates Practice — meditation, high-level artmaking, and community living. This summer’s Lab will incubate two artistic endeavors: Mirror and Bootstraps. Mirror Gerry McCulloch and Betsy McCall are the co-creators of Mirror, an interactive, experimental art piece. Participants are guided to […]
Abbess Betsy interviewed on Drawing Your Own Path
I’m very excited to report that I was interviewed by John F Simon, Jr, the wonderful artist, dedicated practitioner, and recent author of Drawing Your Own Path: 33 Practices at the Crossroads of Art and Meditation. The experience was totally delightful — what a joy to talk with such a kindred spirit, and one who […]
Short Film: Tinspirations
I’m so excited to announce that the first film (in a series of five)! It’s a fun 2-minute video that presents a method for facilitation called “Tinspiration”. Tinspirations are little tins or boxes that stimulate your creativity in a problemsolving or ideation process. Tinspirations are based on human curiosity and bring a touch of playfulness […]
Emerge: post-retreat artshare
Join us as we emerge from a week of silence and see what creativity flows. Friday, June 16 8-9pm free admission 2315 Connecticut River Road Springfield, VT 05156 Emerge is the culmination of a weeklong silent meditation retreat at the Art Monastery in Springfield, Vermont. In the spirit of coming out of silence with […]
Hosting Social Innovation: a free online course
Hosting Social Innovation a free online course April 24 to June 4, 2017 A social innovation is a novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than current solutions. The value created accrues primarily to society rather than to private individuals. -Stanford University, Center for Social Innovation […]
Live Your Dream: A Workbook to Change Your Life
We are very excited to share the Art Monastery’s latest publication, a workbook called “Live Your Dream: Start Here. Start Now.” Made possible by funding from Erasmus+ and collaboration with our international partners plenum, Visionauts, and Sendzimir Foundation, this little book is 25 pages of full-color step-by-step exercises that guide you through identifying what is important to […]
Summer 2016: Paradise
This summer marked the Art Monastery’s first summer Lab in the USA. I would say the one of the most commonly uttered words when talking about the place and our time in Vermont was paradise. That’s a good sign, right? One wonderful element was the fabulous Scottish cinematographer Gerry McCulloch, (who came to continue our collaboration — […]
Emerge: An Artmonk Concert
Please join us as we emerge from a weeklong silent meditation retreat! Our first foray into the world will be to make an offering of the artwork we created during our week of sitting together — music, movement, performance, poetry, and visual art. Friday, August 12 8pm 2315 Connecticut River Road Springfield, VT 05156 […]
Shroom Art
Dear friend and longtime Artmonk and naturalist John Benjamin (who will be co-leading this summer’s Artmonk Retreat) emerged from the neighboring forest here at Art Monastery Vermont, bearing a mystical gift! The Artist’s Conk (Ganoderma applanatum) is a funghi that grows in forests in the northeast, offering out what looks like a snow white surface […]
Vermont is Paradise
This is our backyard: looking south down the Connecticut River. This is also our backyard. This is our neighbor. Meditating in the woods across the street. My bedside stand. I am getting into the grandma aesthetic! Looking north up the river. That’s New Hampshire on the other side of the river.
