LTER Artist-in-Residence program marks its fifth year, welcomes Ellen VanderMyde for 2026 residency

Kalamazoo-based visual artist Ellen VanderMyde is the 2026 artist-in-residence in the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station Long-Term Ecological Research program’s Farmscapes to Forests program, which is entering its fifth year.

The program will also debut its first group exhibition showcasing the work of last year’s cohort of Michigan State University College of Arts & Letters artists. That exhibition is set for 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, July 17, at the W.K. Kellogg Bird Sanctuary.

Launched in 2022 and supported by the National Science Foundation to promote collaborations between art and science, the program offers artists working in any medium a one-week immersion during the summer at KBS, where they collaborate with scientists, students, and educators connected by a shared passion for observing and exploring the natural world.

For each Artist-in-Residence, they are given the opportunity to return to KBS throughout the summer, if desired. The program then culminates with a return visit and public exhibition when the artist-in-residence share their work and experience with the KBS community.

Ellen VanderMyde

VanderMyde is a visual artist, muralist, and teaching artist. Over the past 15 years, VanderMyde has built a career as a visual artist and shown her work regionally and nationally. A Kalamazoo Promise alum, she received her B.A. in Fine Art with a minor in Art History from the Frostic School of Art at Western Michigan University. She has been awarded artist residencies with Stay Home Gallery and the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. She also is a Kalamazoo Artistic Development Initiative (KADI) grant recipient.

“I’m very excited to be the KBS LTER Farmscapes to Forests Artist-in-Residence for 2026-2027,” VanderMyde said. “I’m looking forward to touring the station and meeting with scientists and students to learn about their research.”

During her time at KBS, VanderMyde will visit researchers in the field and participate in lab activities and observation to create a series of paintings featuring KBS scientists and students interacting with the natural world.

“My hope is that through the observation of fieldwork and one-on-one interviews, the paintings I create will provide a unique perspective into the relationships between environmental scientists, the land, and the nonhuman inhabitants they study,” she said. “By depicting people who have devoted their life’s work to understanding and protecting their local ecology, the work will illuminate how that connection and relationship can be fostered.”

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