Loire Valley Summer Residency 2025

General Assembly is delighted to offer emerging artists a fully funded residency at Le Moulin de Marnay in Azay-le-Rideau, nestled in the heart of France’s picturesque Loire Valley, as part of our ongoing Summer Residency Programme.

 

This year, we've invited seven artists to join us across July and August 2025, each for a stay of 2–3 weeks; to step away from the noise and pace of daily life and immerse themselves in the tranquillity of the French countryside. Artists are invited to slow down, breathe deeply, and reconnect with  creative flow. Surrounded by wild meadows, ancient trees and open skies, artists are encouraged to tune into nature’s rhythm, to embrace the stillness, the spaciousness, and perhaps even discover new depths in their practice.

 

From Leonardo da Vinci to Rodin, Calder, Ernst and Tanning, the Loire Valley has long drawn artists seeking inspiration. General Assembly is proud to continue that legacy by supporting contemporary voices through this unique opportunity. The residency will culminate in a group exhibition in the Loire Valley, celebrating the work created during the summer.

 

Applications for 2025 are now closed.

 

Applications reopen on March 15, 2026.

To be notified when our next call for artists goes live and to hear about other upcoming artist development opportunities — sign up through the Artist Residency Portal below.

 

 

Join Artist Residency Portal

 

 

  • Loire Valley Residency Summer 2025

    Benito Ekmekdjian, Benito's on participating in the residency
    Enquire about Benito's available work here

    Benito Ekmekdjian

    Benito's on participating in the residency

    The residency is behaving as a sacred ground for my practice, its abundance in silence, the countryside cadence as well as the community that forms the Loire has intruded on my fast paced, neurotic state and tuned it to serene tones. The possibilities are endless, from long days of work with a brush in hand, sweating in the attic, to whole afternoons packed with conversations and laughter. 

    Being surrounded by such great artists is something I’m very grateful for, their passion is contagious. Being the youngest, I’m constantly taught different lessons and I’m learning about different perspectives, practices, ways to approach the discipline and views of what I love the most, Painting. 

    Overall, Melanie and the General Assembly team have created a safe space for artists to work, learn and network with ease, without an unnerving pressure and surrounded by a beautiful landscape and an atmosphere of joy. 

  • Polly Bennett, Polly on participating in the residency
    Polly Bennett
    Enquire about Polly's available work here

    Polly Bennett

    Polly on participating in the residency

    My intention on the residency is to fully lose myself in the surroundings I inhabit; the Loire as a whole but also Melanie’s house and garden, the caves, the history, the river, to intuitively gather materials that will tell the Loire’s story. 

     

    Combining my pre-existing knowledge of pigment making with local tales and generational wisdom, I aim to create site-sensitive entities that guide one through the organic colours and processes I use to record my experience within the Loire. Earth, flora, and alchemy will unravel to produce a manuscript and pigment collection of my findings, and hopefully something of a General Assembly colour legacy.

     

    I am grateful to be in a space where my practice is greatly supported and engaged with and allowed to expand to its full potential. Thank you Melanie.

     

  • Harold Reed, Harold on participating in the residency
    Harold Reed

    Harold Reed

    Harold on participating in the residency

    Being in the Loire Valley has been wonderful. The quiet of the hamlet, combined with the mix of architecture and natural beauty all within such short distances, is really special. I feel very lucky to be spending my first-ever artist residency here with General Assembly and with such a lovely group of artists. 

     

    I arrived with oil paints, linen, a sketchbook, and an open mind. Our first day visit to Église Saint Martin at the top of town was immediately inspiring, we saw Roman frescoes of Adam and Eve and some other devilish looking figures, really beautiful paintings. Interestingly Adam and Eve weren’t portrayed as their usual rennaisance godlike figures, but instead looked famished, gaunt—almost desperate. It made me wonder how they might appear today, giving me an idea to depict the symbols of human trouble differently in a painting. 

    Enquire about Harold's available work here

  • Loire Valley Residency Summer 2024

    Will Maddrell and Mia Graham
    Will Maddrell, Will on participating in the residency
    Learn more about Will's Loire Valley show

    Will Maddrell

    Will on participating in the residency

    "At the residency, I’m very excited to be working full-time on new works and not worrying about going to the many jobs I have back in London. I can literally wake up, eat a pain au chocolat, make a coffee, get straight to work in the studio upstairs, and work until very late. Without distractions, my output is very prolific. Annual leave never felt so good. 

     

    I’m considering the legacy of the artists who have, over the centuries, spent time in this region. It is here where architect-engineer-artist Leonardo da Vinci spent his final years by invitation of Francis I; where the writer Balzac, now remembered as a foundational figure in the development of the realist novel for his complexity of character and acute observation of society, was born and spent time; and where surrealist Max Ernst and sculptor Rodin respectively took up residence in search of a tranquil environment conducive to creativity. It is not only a shared history in this region which links these artists together, but also, as their lives’ works demonstrate, an interest in the mechanics of reality. 

     

    The work I’m making here explores what it might look like if this conceptual lineage meets a contemporary self-awareness about the role of the artist in fabricating a realism of today, and that of total rest, relaxation and pleasure in the countryside in generating productive creative labour and organically getting closer to reality."

     
  • Mia Graham, Mia on participating in the residency
    Learn more about Mia's solo show at General Assembly

    Mia Graham

    Mia on participating in the residency

    "Having this immersive period to create has been so invaluable for my practice. In London, the pace of life and necessity to graft can make it difficult to retain a connection and openness to the sources which drive and influence my work, which are so often drawn from time spent in natural spaces, reading, introspection and viewing art made by others. Whilst I’ve been here, I’ve been able to completely surrender to a direction of painting which has taken on a life of its own. The simplicity of my routine is reflected in my approach to painting as I become increasingly connected to intuition.

     

    There is a growing element of physicality within my practice, which has flourished during my time here, where my own corporeal presence, and that of the nature which I am surrounded by, leaves traces on the surface of the canvas; I have been using my hands to make marks and working outside. I welcome the soiling of the fabric and reject sterility as the works develop a materiality of disintegration. In their fragile state they edge closer to becoming remains in themselves."

     

    Read Mia Graham's Full Residency Interview