Joshua Tree Highlands Artist Residency Corp

JTHAR was founded in 2007 by LA-based artists James Berg and Frederick Fulmer. The writer and painter became rooted in the vibrant local arts community when they bought a home and founded a co-operative fine art gallery in 2006 near the famed national park. Recognizing the challenges faced by artists who lack time and space in their daily lives to create work, the duo started the 7-week residency so that artists could benefit from immersion in the unique desert context. JTHAR has built partnerships with the arts- and environmentalist communities, allowing our artists to engage with the dialogue between those communities over such urgent issues as water conservation, climate change and over-development. In 2015, JTHAR added month-long residencies to reach more artists. JTHAR’s reputation has grown. We receive more than 200 applications yearly from artists worldwide. Over the past decade, JTHAR has hosted more than 80 artists, including notable alumni Crystal Wagner and Alfredo Barsuglia. JTHAR is uniquely positioned in a desert community at the intersection of many urgent environmental and political issues, such as water conservation and the ongoing drought in California, climate change, plant extinction and over-development. It is our hope that some of the projects created during the residency will contribute to the ongoing dialogue taking place between the arts- and environmental activist communities regarding the power of the arts to reveal the importance of preserving the unique desert landscape and its vulnerability to development. We view JTHAR artists as ambassadors of the area, who can help bring a greater awareness oJf the need for protection of the ecosystem in light of increasing pressures posed by development and climate change. Thus, we organize public presentations for the artists by representatives of local environmentalist organizations such as Mojave Desert Land Trust.