Diane Gilman was a painter, potter, writer and co-founder of the Context Institute. She played a key role in the initial development and coordination of the Global Ecovillage Network

Global Ecovillage Network

The Global Ecovillage Network is a global association of people and communities dedicated to living "sustainable plus" lives by restoring the land and adding more to the environment than is taken...

, a support network for model communities to show how to live more sustainably

Sustainability

Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...

 on the planet, in urban, rural, developed and less developed situations. In 1991, she and her husband, Robert Gilman

Robert Gilman

Robert C. Gilman is a thinker on sustainability who, along with his late wife Diane Gilman, has researched and written about ecovillages. The Gilmans’ work was important in giving definition to the ecovillage movement and shaping the direction of the Global Ecovillage Network...

 co-wrote Eco-Villages and Sustainable Communities, a seminal study of ecovillages for Gaia Trust.

Biography

Gilman attended the University of California at Santa Barbara, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Art. A professional watercolor painter and potter, she founded the Context Institute with her husband, Robert in 1979. She was Associate Publisher of In Context magazine from 1983-1995 and coordinated citizen diplomacy work with the USSR for the Institute. She and Robert Gilman co-founded the Foundation for Russian/American Economic Cooperation, in Seattle, Washington.

Gilman directed the Context Institute's Sustainable Community Program and coauthored a 1991 report on Ecovillages and Sustainable Communities around the world. The report included guidelines for the development of sustainable communities, along with case studies. Gilman co-facilitated a major Sustainable Community and Ecovillage Conference held at Findhorn

Findhorn

Findhorn is a village in Moray, Scotland. It is located on the eastern shore of Findhorn Bay and immediately south of the Moray Firth. Findhorn is 3 miles northwest of Kinloss, and about 5 miles by road from Forres....

, Scotland, in October 1995. This conference was instrumental in giving shape to the ecovillage

Ecovillage

Ecovillages are intentional communities with the goal of becoming more socially, economically and ecologically sustainable. Some aim for a population of 50–150 individuals. Larger ecovillages of up to 2,000 individuals exist as networks of smaller subcommunities to create an ecovillage model that...

 movement.

She was on the advisory board of the Ecovillage Training Center

Ecovillage Training Center

The Ecovillage Training Center is a "total immersion school" for sustainability. It is located at The Farm, an intentional community/ecovillage in Summertown, Tennessee, USA. The curricula of the center are "holistic and comprehensivist" and foster hands-on learning.Albert Bates, a long-time...

in Summertown, Tennessee as well as other organizations working to provide positive solutions for living in our times.

Diane Gilman died of cancer in 1998.