Erasmus+ awards the Art Monastery $54,000!

The Art Monastery has won our biggest grant ever!

Erasmus+ (a European granting organization dedicated to furthering learning and development) generously awarded $240,000 to our European strategic partnership, of which Art Monastery Italia will receive $54,000.

The project, called “Hosting Social Innovation,” will provide tools to empower people to more actively improve their social and ecological environments. By Fall 2017, the four organizations that comprise this alliance (plenum in Austria, Academy for Visionautics in Germany, Art Monastery in Italy, and Sendzimir Foundation in Poland) will collaboratively create:

1. a free, searchable online methodological and resource database consisting of two parts: the basic database (with easy-to-use tools) and the advanced database (aimed at facilitators who host eco-social innovation)
2. curriculum and didactical materials for a trainer-the-trainer workshop
3. curriculum and didactical materials for an eco-social innovation workshop
4. free online workbooks
5. five short films
6. three six-week e-learning courses, which will be organized and taught in English, Polish and German.

The first meeting of the grant kicked off at Bad Blumau, south of Vienna, Austria. It felt like a homecoming to reunite with dear friends from the European Collaboration grant 2012-2013 — the good folks from the Academy for Visionautics and Pioneers of Change. New to the mix is Sendzimir Foundation, who proved themselves to be exceptionally clear thinking and sparkly-eyed folks.

A new beginning in many ways, this grant also marks the official return of Co-Founder Betsy McCall to the Art Monastery. She will be spearheading the Art Monastery’s work in this grant and is excited to be responsible for the series of 5 short films. We’ll keep you posted on our progress.

Want to get involved?
Who do you think we should interview for the database?

Who are the changemakers working creatively at the bottleneck of eco-social innovation?

Who is consistently hosting innovation with real impact?

Contact Betsy at betsy@artmonastery.org with your thoughts.
Stay tuned for dates and locations of the forthcoming workshops.