Joya: AiR is an arts residency developed by artists for artists of every conceivable discipline. Consider Joya: AiR not only a unique, stimulating and contemplative environment for international artists, writers and researchers, but as a meeting point for divergent and creative thinking. This is a multi-disciplinary residency, self determined, critical and profoundly engaging

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residencies for international contemporary artists, writers and researchers

1st september - 30th november 2025

applications are considered between the 1st july and the deadline the 31st july

Climate-positive since 2006, Joya: AiR functions as a generative space for the emergence of climate culture, where artistic exploration contributes to reimagining human-nonhuman relations through the lenses of sustainability, rewilding, and deep ecological thinking

Joya: arte + ecología / Air

associated with the following universities:

Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University, ENG

Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, ENG

Facultad de Bellas Artes, Universidad de Granada, ESP

Located in the semi-arid landscapes of southeastern Spain (BSh), Joya: AiR operates at the intersection of creative practice and ecological design
— Köppen-Geiger / BSh B = arid S = steppe h = hot

publications and exhibitions

publications and exhibitions consequential to being in residence at Joya: AiR

Gabrielle Kroese

Joya: AiR offers a site-responsive context where interdisciplinary practice is deeply embedded within the dynamics of place

resident artists 2025

artists / writers / researchers . June

Anna Sielska / Katarzyna Zolich / Barbara Kubska / Charly Blackburn / Micah Shaffer / Nadine Valcin / Yeni Ma / Richard Barlow / Berin Golonu / Tess Sheerin / Isabel Urbina / Kate Terry / Jo Bertini / Liz Harrington / Kritha Makwana

Joya: AiR emphasises the deep connection between artistic exploration and the environment, supporting practices that are responsive to the materials, rhythms, and care required by fragile ecosystems

international featured artists

Karen Radford / United Kingdom

Joya: resident artists

earlier resident artists writers researchers

Set in the highlands of Almería, within the Comarca de Los Vélez, Joya: AiR inhabits a landscape shaped by wind, water, and time — a place where the mountains hold forests, and the valleys crack open into drylands. This is a transitional terrain: part wildland, part badlands, rich with contrasts and resilience.

Here, ecological boundaries are visible and felt — in the arid breath of the soil, the patterns of abandonment and regrowth, the erosional signatures etched into the land. Yet this is not a desert. It is a semi-arid ecotone where biodiversity and geological memory intersect, offering a raw and urgent context for creative exploration.

Artists-in-residence engage not just with landscape, but with process: of restoration, of listening, of imagining alternatives to extraction and decline. Los Vélez is not merely backdrop — it is collaborator, archive, and provocation.

At Joya: AiR, you are invited into dialogue with a territory at the threshold — where creative practice becomes an act of care, and the future of drylands is not yet written.

joya: senda

art in an ephemeral landscape

joya: air

environmental responsibility statement

joya: air

GCC / Gallery Climate Coalition active member 2023

Joya: AiR

climate positive & off-grid since 2006

Joya: sustainable darkroom

alternative & sustainable

Joya: wild clay

wood fired adobe ceramics kiln / spring 2023