Founded in 2007, JTHAR is a nonprofit artist residency, which invites artists from around the world to create work amidst the beauty of Joshua Tree National Park and connect to the vibrant local artistic community. The residency provides scholarship funds, accommodations, studio space and a gallery exhibition.
JTHAR Board Members
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James Berg & Frederick Fulmer
There is something magical about making art in Joshua Tree. This famed desert landscape has lured and inspired painters and poets, musicians and mystics since the 30s, and native American artmakers for centuries. We found it to be true when we bought a run-down cabin on five acres in 2000. As a painter and a writer, we were hoping that respite from the city would a boon to our creativity. What we did not expect was to become conduits to creativity for hundred of artists from around the world. We started the Joshua Tree Highlands Artist Residency to offer residencies to culturally diverse contemporary artists from around the world at all stages of their careers, inclusive of work in all media—and to provide inspirational living accommodations and studio spaces so arts can do the work of changing the cultural landscape and generating a fresh look at the way we connect to each other and to the world. — James Berg (screenwriter) & Frederick Fulmer (artist, gallerist) co-founders of the Joshua Tree Highlands Artist Residency. Katy Niner
Katy Niner is an independent arts writer / editor / researcher who hopscotches between Jackson, WY and Joshua Tree—a route shaped by her sea change experience at JTHAR. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Creative Writing from Princeton University and a master’s in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her career has covered wide terrain, from subediting at an English-language daily in Ha Noi, Viet Nam, working her way up from General Assignment reporter to Arts Editor at a community newspaper in Wyoming to co-authoring whitepapers on affordable housing and strategic arts leadership. She continues to develop the project supported by JTHAR—expansion of her master’s thesis into a book, which reconfigures the essentialized biography of sculptor Marisol to include her experience of living and art-making with Alzheimer’s disease—while also cultivating arts- and design-driven real estate development projects in the high desert and the Tetons. |
Rae & Reid Del Bianco Perry
Rae Del Bianco Perry is an internationally award-winning novelist and screenwriter. A 2019 JTHAR artist in residence, Del Bianco Perry relocated permanently to the desert in 2023. Reid Del Bianco Perry is a Grammy-winning internationally touring artist from Jackson, Mississippi. He moved to Joshua Tree in 2023 and is still hoping to see some burrowing owls. Barbara Schwan
Barbara Schwan was the Executive Director of The Skylark Foundation, a private family foundation, and Curator and Registrar for a major contemporary art collection. She served on the board of ILSAF (International Land Sensitive Art Foundation), a foundation that collaborated with the Navajo Nation to produce site specific art and sound installations. She is excited to be participating on the board of JTHAR. Schwan lives in Venice, CA where she continues her visual arts practice, and is the Director of Masters in the Chapel, a 4-concert, world class music series serving the Venice community. Ruth Rieman |
Milo Smolin
Milo Smolin is an arts advocate and artist, working with artists and spaces across disciplines and media. Milo celebrates experimentation and materiality, and the critical role of image and object-making in the pursuit of healing, collective strength, ecological stewardship, and cultural sovereignty. In his own work, Milo creates images with cut paper, graphite, ink, and thread. His illustrations are each part of a web of mythopoeic, anthropological, and animist allegories, spanning epochs, ancient wisdoms, and organic cycles of growth and decay. Timothy & Judy Hearsum
Timothy Hearsum has been a High Desert resident since 2015. A life-long artist, he has also worked as a teacher and curator. His photographs are known internationally through numerous exhibits, public, private and corporate collections and Getty Images. He has also published several books. Judy Hearsum’s career included teaching, writing grants and administering programs at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Since moving to the High Desert in 2015, she has helped to curate and create promotional materials for numerous art exhibits and music events. Advisory Board Members:
Adam Gross |