Artmill

Barbara Benish-Kalná, the school’s founder and director, is an artist, raised in the U.S., who moved to the Czech Republic in 1993, after completing a year as a Fulbright scholar in Prague. Benish’s own work has been shown at P.S.1 Museum in New York, U.N.E.S.C.O. Headquarters in Paris, the Venice Biennalle in Italy and a survey exhibition at Pomona Museum of Art, at the Claremont Graduate University in California, (her alma mater). Her work is represented in public and private collections around the world including the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Stadtgeschichtliche Museen in Nurnberg, Germany. [ www.bbenish.net ]. 

Šárka Hnátova, when not racing her horse Fram, teaches horsebackriding in Šumava, C.R. She is an accomplished artist and craftsperson. [ www.konici.com ]

Radka Panušková, formerly a violinist with the Plzen Philharmonic, now teaches at a grade school and local music school in Šumava, Czech Republic. She has toured Europe with local choirs, as well as being founding Director of Uheráček, a children’s performing choir in the region.

Mariana Dočekalová is a teacher of visual arts at an elementary school in Prague. She works as a an author and lector at the department of educational programs of Rudolfinum gallery in Prague. She also teaches at the MOM (Mother’s center). Her graphics and sculptures have been shown locally. She recently finished her MA at the Faculty of Pedagogics, Charles University, Prague, and is currently Assistant Director at ArtMill.

Maruška Kovaříková, has been cooking for the local elementary school for nearly 5 years, as well as cook at ArtMill since 2005. Her speciality, as all kids remember, is pastry and desserts. But others would argue her soups are the best in Central Europe.

June Gorman is both an educator and educational theorist who has taught for the past 25 years in mutliple public, alternative and multi-cultural settings, after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in Environmental Education and receiving her teaching credential from University of California at Santa Cruz. Her interests are focused in the fields of International Education, as a board member of both the International Model United Nations Association and the United Nations Association of the US.

Allison Gravis graduated from Redlands University in California, majoring in Environmental Studies. Her thesis project involved the environmental impact of local fishing practices on sea turtles in Baja California, Mexico. Allison taught swimming lessons at a local community pool for several years, worked as an educator at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center in the Pacific Northwest, and volunteered for an Emergency Re-building Team in New Orleans after the hurricane. She recently relocated to San Francisco to pursue a Master’s Degree in Education.

Martina Kocmanová is studying art at Brno’s Academy of Art, Architecture and Design, in the Czech Republic. She has studied also in France, and is fluent in that language. Her hobbies include hip-hop dancing and scenography.

Aleš Loziak is a photography student at the Faculty of Art and Design in Ústí nad Labem in the Czech Republic, finishing his baccalaureate work this spring. He recently spent a semester studying in Finland. He is working as a freelancer in sphere of photographer, webdesign, webdeveloper and other visual media. [ www.apollo1.cz ].

Sabina Luger graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. She has traveled extensively and received several awards for her fine drawings. Since 1990 she works exclusively with metalpoint, in all formats

Jon Mac Cafferty is a painter based in New York City. He has worked in fine graphics printing and as an assistant at fine arts presses in New York.

Antonín Melka is our Master Welder and general Handyman. "Tonda" has been working at the Mill since 2004. Known to be able to do anything, including helping students make sculptures out of any material, building rafts, hauling boulders, making furniture, or lifting a Caravan into a tree, he is an irreplacable part of the Red Mill’s family.

Kim Corcoran has been teaching English as a Second Language for over 20 years in Santa Barbara, California. She has been interested in Art since way before that, and finally started painting in 2005. Besides raising three children into successful adulthood, Kim has been an avid hiker and nature lover since her childhood.

Anna Corcoran is an accomplished and promising young star of the San Francisco Conservatory for Music. She plays the violin. She was also caught  moonlighting in her high school years as a violinist/vocalist in a rock/punk band in Santa Barbara, CA.

Jana Eichnerova has been cooking all her life, including 20 years as a professional in a local school kitchen. She is helping us at the Mill keep the kitchen and cellars in order as well as making terrific czech buchty.

Kára Stuchlová   is studying economics at a local gymnasium and is preparing for college. She has worked summers at the Mill since 2006, helping in the kitchen and everything else.

Martina Kubátová is studying agriculture at a local high school. She is due to graduate this year. She helps in the Mill’s gardens each summer, and trains her horse whenever possible.

Tim Kopra is an art student at the University of California at Santa Cruz. It will be his first teaching experience in Europe.

Robin Lovell is an art lover and fluent in Spanish. She has done community organizing in the San Francisco Bay Area for a number of years, as well as raise a family.

Daniel Camacha has been painting for over 25 years. Much of his work deals with the beauty and tragedy of his home country, Mexico. The garden in His new home in the San Francisco Bay area inspires his work with peace and tranquility. He was born in Mexico City, has practiced his art for over two decades. Now based in the San Francisco Bay Area with his family, he is having his first European show at Galerie Califia in the summer of 2010.

In addition to the ten or so student-teachers, ArtMill has counselors from the various local art academies and schools. The ratio of teachers to students is approximately 2:1.