Art Monastery in Italy Update
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008Cari Amici,
We’re writing with some WONDERFULLY good news!
First, the USA Fund Raising Tour was a resounding success! Not only did we exceed our goal of $20,000, but we added hundreds of members to Gli Amici dell’Art Monastery, and 5 brilliant experts to our fund raising and production teams! Thank you all so much for showing up at the events and helping us to make this dream a reality.
In May in Calvi, Christopher, the Alpha Team, and our first visiting artists participated in the medieval festival of San Pancrazio (patron saint of Calvi) with a Gregorian Chant Vespers for San Pancrazio in the church and “Tra Quercia e Ulivo” a Duncan dance and medieval music performance in the (rainy) piazza, much to the delight of the locals. Relations here have never been better.
On June 17, we moved from the Casa del Popolo to the Bio-Agriturismo Santa Brigida, a luxurious bed&breakfast on a working olive farm. It is a gorgeous place (in fact, it’s listed in the 2007 Michelin Guide) and we hope to take over the management in order to create another income stream for the Art Monastery. We plan to run workshops and seminars here–more info on that will come soon.
Meanwhile, you are all invited to come and visit us in our new digs!
Feeling spontaneous?…
We’re offering members of Gli Amici dell’Art Monastery 50% off market rate** from now until July 15! We will offer double rooms or two-double room suites that normally go for 90 or 125 euros per night (they’re the most luxurious rooms in Calvi) for 45 or 60 euros!
Don’t let high airline ticket prices be an excuse — United Airlines is having a European Summer Fare Sale starting at $385. It’s a great deal, but you have to book by this Friday, June 25. With gasoline at the price it is, heading to the next town is almost more expensive! Now is the time! Have an Italian vacation
and support the Art Monastery at the same time!
See you soon…
A presto…
Betsy & The Alpha Team
**To book, please email mia@artmonastery.org












You are invited to participate. After a short condensed class here (at Shangri-La in Topanga Canyon), we’ll car-pool to Zuniga and hike in to the private land in the center of
our multi-person shelter ‘club-house’ built by previous classes, also has a legal propane central fire. These are both great to sit around and talk, take pictures, and imagine tribal times and activities.
There are a number of small dry clean sandy caves in the area that are just the right size for one or two people to sleep in. I suggest you bring everything you normally would for camping out, and then if you want to improvise so you don’t need pieces of it, great. Otherwise, just getting out there in a comfortable sleeping bag is stretch enough for most people.















