Jua Paa House
For Artists & Art Lovers
We are a creative sanctuary for artists, writers and collectors, offering space for residency, research and reflection.
Our self-sustaining model means that every stay supports future residencies.
Our house is currently undergoing some necessary upkeep. Don't worry, we shall preserve all of the * magic * of the space. jua paa
Continuing the legacy of the artist Yony Waite and one of Kenya’s longest-standing artist residencies, we invite Kenya-based contemporary artists to experience life in Lamu.
During selected residency periods, artists are welcomed into our home for a few weeks of living and creating. We hope there will be meaningful exchange and lots of inspiration.
Re-membering the Sun
Artist Yony Waite made her life in Kenya, where she lived with uncommon generosity, curiosity and freedom. She believed deeply in artists and in the creative communities that gathered around them. Rather than leaving behind only a record of exhibitions and achievements, she left something far more enduring. A way of living that continues to radiate through the lives of others.
For that reason, we are collecting the stories that arise organically. Unexpected encounters, mischievous adventures, secret acts of kindness and cheeky moments that reveal the spirit of a person far more truthfully than any chronology of dates.
What was most alive in Yony cannot be captured in facts. It lives in the moments where one life unexpectedly opened into another, where artists were encouraged, friendships formed and strangers became collaborators. These are stories encountered rather than arranged.
Re-membering the Sun is a project that gathers around Yony not as a single, contained life, but as a point of connection through which other lives come into view.
Jua Paa House, Roof of the Sun, forms part of that gathering. Its history is pieced together through fragments, memories and conversations, each revealing something of the people who passed through its doors and the life they created together.
