W.K. Kellogg Biological Station

  • Kellogg Farm
  • Bird
    Sanctuary
  • Conference Center
    & Manor House
  • Home
  • About KBS
    • About Home
    • COVID-19 Information
    • Mission and History
    • Culture and Inclusion
    • Media
    • Resources for Faculty & Staff
    • Employment
    • Contact Us
  • Research
    • Research Home
    • Faculty Labs
    • Research Facilities and Field Sites
    • Conducting Research at KBS
    • Seminar Program
    • All Publications
      • Publications 2020-Present
      • Theses and Dissertations
  • Education
    • Education Home
    • Graduate Program
    • Undergraduate Programs
      • URA Program
      • REU Program
      • 2024 KBS LTAR Research Internship
      • Internships
    • Summer Courses and Academic Workshops
    • Financial Support & Housing
    • K-12 Programs
      • Classroom Resources
      • Professional Development
      • Workshops and Institutes
      • Elementary Teacher Program
      • Research Experiences for Teachers
    • Data Nuggets
  • People
    • People Home
    • Administration / Staff
    • Faculty
    • Adjunct Faculty
    • Postdoctoral Research Associates & Academic Staff
    • Graduate Students
    • Visiting Scholars
    • Alphabetical Directory
  • Support
    • Support Home
    • Become a Member
    • Volunteer
    • KBS Alumni
  • Visit
    • Visit Home
    • Directions & Maps
    • Tours
  • Events
Home | KBS News | LTER artist-in-residence program continues KBS’s exploration of art-science collaborations

LTER artist-in-residence program continues KBS’s exploration of art-science collaborations

06.03.22 KBS News

This spring marks the return of an artist to the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station Long-term Ecological Research program site to examine the intersections of art and science. The new program, titled Farmscapes to Forests, will welcome artists from across all mediums to spend a week at KBS, followed by a culminating visit in the fall or winter to share their work.

In 2019, farmer and poet Erin Schneider visited KBS for a two-part residency that culminated in a November exhibition of the work of KBS-related artists. Since then, the program has formalized into a recurring opportunity for artists interested in science, ecology, and sustainable agriculture.

About the program

Erik Vasilauskas and Anna Lee Roeder kneel in front of an in-progress mural of colorful blocks.
Erik Vasilauskas and Anna Lee Roeder of Dream Scene Placemaking

Supported by the National Science Foundation, Gretel Van Wieren, Professor in Michigan State University’s Department of Religious Studies, is leading the program in its first collaboration with Dream Scene Placemaking, a husband-and-wife duo of mural artists based in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  

“I attended the KBS LTER All Scientist Meeting in the fall of 2021 and had the opportunity to meet numerous researchers and graduate students who were enthusiastic about exploring the idea of developing an artist-in-residence program,” Van Wieren said.  

Having completed more than 25 public projects in the last three years, Dream Scene Placemaking, which was established by Erik Vasilauskas and Anna Lee Roeder, was selected by a team of KBS researchers, staff, and graduate students to be the first Farmscapes to Forests artist-in-residence.

“We are looking forward to spending time immersed in nature and exploring the surroundings as a family,” Roeder said. “We are excited to interact with the community of people that live and work there and to share in a creative exchange.”

“It is our goal to highlight the creativity and inspiration that can be found in these surroundings, as well as for participants to explore creative expression in an environment where they may usually be in a scientific mindset.”

Dream Scene Placemaking

In 2021, Dream Scene Placemaking partnered with Kalamazoo Parks and Recreation to hold an interactive photography workshop, titled City Snaps, for children attending summer camp. During the workshop, each child received a single-use film camera to take photographs of their time at camp, which were then used to make public displays throughout Kalamazoo. Based off several iterations of this project, Vasilauskas and Roeder will provide film cameras for the KBS community to share and take photographs of themselves and their work at the station. Additionally, they will explore potential on-campus sites for murals during their week-long stay.

“It is our goal to highlight the creativity and inspiration that can be found in these surroundings, as well as for participants to explore creative expression in an environment where they may usually be in a scientific mindset,” Roeder said. “We plan to work with KBS to come up with a plan for installing and displaying the resulting images.”

Dream Scene Placemaking’s City Snaps public art display, consisting of photographs taken by summer camp children printed into a collage and mounted on a chain-link fence in Kalamazoo.
Dream Scene Placemaking’s City Snaps public art display

Vasilauskas and Roeder established Dream Scene Placemaking after a growing passion for public art. While their first collaborative mural was in Heraklion, Greece, as part of the Lakkos Art Residency in 2019, it wasn’t until they were invited to paint the City of Kalamazoo’s Kik Pool building later that year that they decided to officially incorporate as a public art collaborative. 

Science, art and placemaking at KBS

During their time at MSU, Vasilauskas and Roeder will take a tour of the KBS LTER’s research sites with scientists and staff and have a chance to explore its extensive natural lands. They will also have the opportunity to interact with the incoming summer cohort of undergraduate students.

“The artists will have access to KBS’s world-renowned research site and the diverse ecosystems and long-term experiments it contains, including grasslands, forests, and lakeside habitats,” Van Wieren said. “They will have opportunities to interact with researchers and students working onsite, including field work observation and participation with ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and social scientists going about their work.”

Before leading the program at MSU, Van Wieren gained valuable experiences at other LTER sites across the country and now hopes to execute a meaningful and successful collaboration at MSU. Van Wieren was the 2015 Writer-in-Residence at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest Long-Term Ecological Reflections for Oregon State University and is currently the 2022 Artist-in-Residence at the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve LTER for the University of Minnesota.

“These residencies have been incredibly formative and generative for me as a scholar and writer,” she said. “It has been a dream of mine since my experience at the Andrews Forest to develop such a program at KBS.”

Related articles

The original version of this article appeared in MSU’s College of Arts and Letters News on May 20, 2022.

New KBS LTER Artist-in-Residence program aims to create intersection between art and research | May 22, 2022

Tags: art, art and science, LTER, science

RECENT POSTS

05.19.25

Science communication and data literacy: Reflections on my fellowship with Data Nuggets 

03.28.25

KBS Pasture Dairy Center wraps up 15 years of innovation

03.28.25

Haas wins community engagement award for her work with K-12 educators

Categories

  • COVID-19 resources
  • Events
  • Graduate Students
  • Grants and funding
  • Guest post
  • K-12 Partnership
  • KBS History
  • KBS News
  • Publications
  • Research
  • Stories and blog posts
  • Uncategorized
  • Undergraduate experiences

A legacy of conservation; a commitment to sustainability.

W.K. Kellogg Biological Station
3700 E. Gull Lake Drive
Hickory Corners, MI 49060
(269) 671-5117
info@kbs.msu.edu
FacebookTwitterYoutubeInstagram
Green, white, gold and gray banner with the Spartan helmet logo and the words Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Gold Award 2023-24

Sign up for our monthly newsletter

Get regular updates from KBS about research, events, and more!
*indicates required
  • Call us: (269) 671-5117
  • Contact Information
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Statement
  • Site Accessibility

Call MSU: (517) 355-1855 | Visit msu.edu | Notice of Nondiscrimination

SPARTANS WILL | © Michigan State University Board of Trustees