ArtMILL

The school's founder and director, Barbara Benish Kalna, 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. Besides making art, teaching, and maintaining a busy international schedule of exhibiting and lecturing, she maintains a small organic farm with the help of her two daughters, Gabriela and Natalia (ages 9 and 6). 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 Biennale in Italy, and recently a survey exhibition at Pomona College 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. Please see her web site for further information: bbenish.net.

Petr Kalny was raised in Prague and educated at HTL Brugg-Windisch, Switzerland, receiving his diploma in Architecture in 1984. Since re-immigrating to the then Czechoslovakia in 1994, he has pursued art and architecture privately, with numerous projects including an exhibition at the National Technical Museum, Prague, and most recently, building a family villa on commission in Prague.

A native Californian, Heather Hendrickson is a landscape designer and horticulturalist. she received her undergraduate training in literature and art history at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Following museum work at the Laguna Art Museum (1981-1985) and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1985-1988), Hendrickson worked collaboratively with architects, artists and landscape architects placing public art developing public art policy. After receiving her Ornamental Horticulture degree, she has collaborated with artists and architects in landscape design to bring her unique knowledge of architecture, art, horticulture and design to creating spaces that engage the senses and return us to the delights of Nature. She has practiced yoga since 1990.

Sarka Hnatova, when not racing her horse, Fram, runs a private Horseback riding School in Sumova, C.R. She is an accomplished artist and craftsperson.

Tomas Hruza, is a photography student at the Academy of Art in Usti nad Labem, C.R. He has worked in youth summer camps the past five years.

Dr. Renata Jará, formerly practicing in the emergency room, now focuses on holistic medicine with her own private practice.

Radka Panuskova, formerly a violinist with the Plzen Symphony, now runs a private music school in Sumova, Czech Republic. She has toured Europe with local choirs, as well as being founding Director of Uheracek, a children’s performing choir in the region.

Lenka Becvar is a Studio Art Major at Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin. She has studied various forms of dance all her life and she loves being out in the forest more than anything. Her father was born in the Czech Republic and inspired Lenka to study in Prague the Fall semester of 2005.

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 works has been displayed at the „Print of the Year“ competition (2004; 2005) and she has been an invited participant at the „Sewn sculpture“ symposium in Ostrava in 2003. She is currently finishing her MA at the Faculty of Pedagogics, Charles University, Prague.

Allison Gravis is a Junior at the University of REDLANDS in California, majoring in Environmental Studies. Her thesis for last year's project involved the environmental impact of local fishing practices on sea turtles in Baja California, Mexico. Allison has taught swimming lessons at a local community pool for several years and was recently promoted to Manager

Anna Klimentova is 22 and she is a student of the University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice. She is studying German and English for Teachers. Anna will start the fourth year of her studies in October.

Khoi Vo is a professor of Architecture and Design at California State University, Long Beach, California. He received his Master's Degree at Sci Arc in Los Angeles. An accomplished architect, Vo also runs a design company in L.A. specializing in fountains, designing tiles, concrete pottery, and other water features called Studio Four. (studiofourlosangeles.com)

Annie Rudnik is a student of Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY, USA, where she studies dance, performance art, history, sociology and specializes in tap dance history. She has been dancing since age three, studying the disciplines of ballet, tap, jazz, modern, hip hop, pointe, and contemporary. She has taught dance at various schools in Chicago and New York City.

June Gorman is a teacher, having received her B.S. in environmental education from the University of California, Berkeley and her teaching credential fro the University of California, Santa Cruz in '87. For the last 20+ years she has been involved as a co-director of an alternative school in Berkeley and one in Santa Cruz, as well as teaching in the public school elementary classroom in both Virginia and California. Her interest most recently is on Emotional Intelligence development in children, and its effects on the learning child.