Artmill - by Barbara Benish Paperback

Book Synopsis

The story starts in totalitarian darkness (Czechoslovakia before 1989) and gradually lays out a groundwork for how creativity within community can influence and change society. All of this is rooted in the connection to the natural world, be it local sustainable farming practices, rural innovations, or international policies with governmental bodies on the global level. The book is a success story for a female artist (the author) who found a way to build a life in a rural, posttotalitarian, foreign country, with virtually no income, through her love of the place. It is a testament to the resilience of the people of that small nation that was sacrificed in the tumultuous chess game of colonial superpowers dividing up Europe after the devastation of WWII. It is a textbook protocol on how to instill civil society from the ground up, so that democratic life can thrive. This is a story that has been told in small pieces over the years in essays, catalogues, lectures, and radio and television interviews but needed the deeper context of a fulllength book.

Review Quotes

"Artistic creativity is at the heart of sustainability, which Barbara Benish presents from different perspectives. The soft power elements of creativity, ingenuity, innovation and imagination are playing a paramount role at all levels of society. She narrates how creative intelligence can support sustainable development and social change so as to secure an inclusive and resilient future for our only planet. ArtMill is indeed an homage to the indispensable art-creativity-society nexus of our time."--DR. HANS D'ORVILLE, former UNESCO Deputy Director-General

"ArtMill is unique in its underlying philosophy marked by the confluence of artistic creativity and sensitivity toward the environment. Rarely do we find anywhere with such seamless physical stewardship of land sparked by the artistic impulse. In a world plagued by mostly man-made natural disasters, ArtMill sounds a clarion call for sustainable ways to deal with the physical world--approaches that do not exploit but enrich and protect the places entrusted to us."--CHARLOTTA KOTIK, Curator Emerita of Contemporary Art, Brooklyn Museum, and current independent curator, lecturer, and writer. Coeditor of Zigi Ben-Haim: A Journey of Discovery

"Benish's pilgrimage to Bohemia from Southern California to build an artist sanctuary weaves together such a breathlessly entertaining cultural and political history of Czechoslovakia's transition to democracy that you almost lose sight of the specter of the authoritarian present. But not quite. Fortunately, she lights the path forward for how humans can heal ourselves and our planet through boundless creativity and learning--the result is a masterpiece of scholarship, sensibility and storytelling."--SALLY JO FIFER, Former President CEO, Independent Television Service; Executive Producer of Independent Lens, PBS

"Drawing from her rich and compelling life experience, Barbara Benish tells the inspiring story of ArtMill--an unlikely Bohemian refuge in a collapsing world, where art, community, and ecological renewal converge. Rooted in the aftermath of socialist authoritarianism, and now poised against the forces of corporate globalization, ArtMill offers a vital model for collective regeneration and a future we cannot afford to lose."--T. J. DEMOS, author of Radical Futurisms: Ecologies of Collapse, Chronopolitics, and Justice-to-Come; professor in the History of Art and Visual Culture at University of California, Santa Cruz, and founding director of its Center for Creative Ecologies

"The remarkable story of ArtMill unfolds against the ever-changing background of recent Eastern European history. It begins in the dark days of late Communist Czechoslovakia, proceeds through the exuberant early years of the return of democracy and ends with the contested politics of the region today. Barbara Benish's absorbing narrative offers a compelling argument for the crucial support that art and artists can provide to society in navigating periods of tumultuous social change."--JAY A. LEVENSON, Director, International Program, The Museum of Modern Art

About the Author

Barbara Benish is a California-born artist and writer inspired by the ocean environment, the Mexican deserts, and surrounding Indigenous cultures. At University of Hawai'i in the early 1980s, Benish's work in art and ethnology grounded her understanding of the intrinsic connection of environmental protection with social justice, and the relationship of Colonialism, sovereignty and stewardship. The Czechoslovak Revolution in 1989, in which Benish was involved, gave her first-hand experience in social change ignited by the arts.

In 1992 she moved from L.A. to Prague as a Fulbright scholar after co-curating the first cross-cultural exchange between the U.S. and Czechoslovakia in decades. She founded ArtMill in 2004 in rural Bohemia, an international eco-art center. From 2010-2015, Benish served as Advisor for U.N.E.P. in Arts & Outreach and, since 2015, is a Fellow at the Social Practice Arts Research Center (U.C. Santa Cruz). Benish has co-authored two books on art and the environment (Routledge), dozens of essays on art, most recently finishing a visual collaboration with political philosophers Michael Shapiro and Sam Opondo (U. Manchester, 2024). Her mixed media art has been shown in hundreds of international exhibitions including museums such as P.S.1 (MoMA) in New York, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Stadtgeschichtliche Museen in Nürnburg, Germany, and the National Gallery in Prague, Czech Republic, to list a few.