ArtMillBarbara BenishLabel: New Village PressDescription: 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.
