ORIGIN STORY: Suiko McCall (then known as Betsy) met Christopher Fülling at the Burning Man Festival in 2006. Christopher, an early-music vocalist and ritual theater director, had just come from working with his ensemble at a monastery in Germany. The ensemble had participated in the monks’ schedule, joining them for meals and rehearsing while the monks did their work. Christopher left his time at the monastery deeply inspired and replenished. Suiko and Christopher started wondering what would happen if a group of contemporary artists were to live in a beautiful historic monastic structure, applying the thousands of years of monastic principles of discipline, contemplation, and sustainable living to creativity and the art-making process. They never stopped asking that question and now we have the Art Monastery.
HISTORY: Art Monastery Italia, a small residential community of “Artmonks”, hosted many visiting artists and guest Artmonks-in-Residence while living and working together in a centuries-old, former monastery. Together we created dozens of original works, symposia, exhibitions, and site-specific performances that animated historic spaces throughout Italy and interacted with the local communities. Our half-decade in Italy culminated with an EU grant to partner with six other intentional communities throughout Europe to share experiences and develop best practices, resulting in the publication of a book, Hosting Transformation.
CURRENT: The Art Monastery is now informally located on the ancestral land of the Kanaka Maoli, Big Island, Hawaii. While we are still exploring the possibilities of in-person artist residencies, we do offer meditation & creativity retreats and classes online.
MISSION: The Art Monastery is a residential community dedicated to cultivating personal awakening and cultural transformation through artmaking, spiritual practice, and reciprocity with the earth. As a “social sculpture,” the Art Monastery considers communities and collaborations themselves as creative media and values the creative process and experience of all impacted when developing a wide range of performance and visual art.
The first step in joining our community is to participate in one of our programs.
Then, after we find land, it may be possible to become a resident (rent a room in the house and work outside) or worktrade (pay a minimal weekly fee and work 5 hours/day for the Art Monastery). After living with us for a year, we begin the process of adding you into the decision-making system.
Please take a look at the programs listed on our website. If it looks like your kind of thing and you’d like to know when we find a place or are accepting visitors, sign up for our moonletters (a poem & painting for each new & full moon).
A few people (not elected by the broader community) make the major decisions.
A single person, couple, or small group makes most major decisions.
Primary authority rests with the community’s founder(s) or designated leader(s).
We are receiving training in sociocracy.
Members maintain separate personal finances with minimal sharing.
Join fee: Yes
Regular fees: $800
Labor: Yes (3 hrs/week)
Internet
Connecting communities through an intentional online marketplace
A residential project: people live here as their primary home.
An institution, business, network, or project that isn’t a residence (e.g. a learning center, farm, or network with no one living there full-time).
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