About

The Art Monastery Project is an American 501(c)(3) non-profit arts organization dedicated to cultivating personal awakening and cultural transformation through art, community, and contemplation.

The brainchild of American artists Betsy McCall and Christopher Fülling and founded in 2007, the Project applies the monastic principles of discipline, contemplation, and sustainable living to creativity and the art-making process. The pilot site and first major program of the Project is Art Monastery Italia. AM Italia intends to transform a historic Italian monastery into an international arts production center. In addition to the Project’s other US-based programs, such as concerts and Artmonk Retreat, plans for Art Monastery San Francisco are in the works. In all its programs, the Art Monastery Project is committed to investigating the idea of “social sculpture” and develops a wide range of performance-based and visual art works in a mode that focuses on the process of creation as much as the final products.

The Art Monastery Project is a radical experiment in contemporary social sculpture inspired by tradition: to apply the disciplined, contemplative, and sustainable monastic way of living to the creative process.