In 1995, Hubertus Nollen, nicknamed ‘Huub’, an art historian and gallery owner from the Netherlands, sets in the hamlet of La Pommerie, in the very heart of the Plateau de Millevaches. There, he decides to restore a traditional limousine farm and to create a residency center to invite artists. Appelboom was thus founded, and has up to now invited more than 200 artists: visual artists, musicians, comedians, dancers from all over the world.

Since July 2007, a new staff, with a desire to work in relation with the territory, the inhabitants and with cross-disciplinary objectives, sets up an annual program of residencies. The association also develops educational workshops and regularly organizes musical and performative events.

La Pommerie is a hamlet located in Corrèze, between Limoges (95 km) and Clermont-Ferrand (110 km), on the commune of Saint-Setiers (245 inhabitants).
Ussel (10750 inhabitants), the capital of Haute-Corrèze, 27 km away from La Pommerie, is the nearest town.

Straddling Corrèze, Creuse and Haute-Vienne, the Plateau de Millevaches, in the very heart of a Natural Regional Park, is a huge territory of 3300 km2. Made of Granit, heath, heather, rivers, forests and peat-bogs, the landscape’s diversity is the originality of this land of hills. Winters are long and cold at those Massif Central’s foothills where the highest point peaks at 1000 m.

The population density is today less than 10 inhabitants/km2, and in some areas does not exceed 3 inhabitants/km2. The average age is higher and higher. Indeed, in the 19th and 20th centuries, many locals left the ‘High Lands’. The main reasons of this movement were the mediocrity of food resources due to the poverty of the land, the rigours of the climate and the poor expanse of cultivations.
People moved away from High Limousin without really totally breaking their bonds. Nowadays, the children and the grandchildren of those migrants come back to the roots of their ancestors during the summer.

La Pommerie thus comes to life during the vacations. Only 2 or 3 houses are inhabited all year long.

People living on the Plateau de Millevaches today essentially make their living on farming, and more precisely breeding (sheep and limousine cows), but also on forest exploitation or on timber industry in general. Economy diversification is on its way with the development of tourism and with the still fragile small rural industry

The old barn has been transformed and is now dedicated to creation, diffusion and exhibition. Artists in residence have access to: - A studio (8m X 8m and 3m high) next to the apartment on the ground floor. - An exhibition space with a parquet floor (16mx8m and 6m high). - An apartment with two bedrooms, each including 2 single beds, a kitchen, a bathroom with toilets and a washing machine.