Contact:  Info (at) ArtMonastery (dot) org

The Murals of Calvi, Art Monastery and the Bonfires of Itri

March 25, 2008 • No Comments

Relax time for us, crunch time for the Art Monastery organizers: meetings here and there, computers marathon sessions, etc. These guys are serious about their really awesome project, and it was great to get an eye-witness perspective. In the meantime, us ArtVenturers wandered the tiny town of Calvi dell’Umbria, which has an excessive amount of 1980’s murals throughout its winding historic center. Eighties or not, art is indeed sacred.

These curvy alleys took us from one piece of art to the next, and although certainly not Picassos, it was a relaxing and reflective stroll:

Some of the highlights of the 1980s-period pieces by Calvi dell’Umbria masters:

The Art Monastery Project is in the works in this small town with a gorgeous, abbandoned monastery as its centerpiece:

Once Christopher, Betsy, Ben and the rest of the Art Monastery pioneers manage to get past the hurdles of Italian bureaucracy and big-time fund-raising, this will be one of the most interesting projects to spark up in Italy. The idea is to house a community of about 30 artists of all kinds in the old monastery lodgings and create a residency program where artists live and work. Performances, installations and concerts are already in the planning stages and all seem super interesting! Check it out: www.artmonastery.org. I think the plan is to get things running by July, so stay tuned y’all. Here are some other angles of the monastery; imagine 30 artists living in this place what it would look like after a year or so: