As we reflect on the challenges recent winter weather has brought to nature and our community, we look ahead to the warmth of spring and the land’s renewal. One bright spot of the season is announcing the winners of Bernheim’s Artist in Residence Program—now celebrating 46 years!
This year, 205 submissions were received from 34 countries. Five artists were selected for their compelling visual storytelling, superb craft, and innovative use of materials and concepts. The Arts in Nature program is pleased to award Susan Brinkhurst, Anthony Corraro, Katherine Rutter, Marilee Salvator, and The Unreliable Bestiary as the 2026 Artists in Residence.
Artist in Residence – Susan Brinkhurst
Susan Brinkhurst is a multidisciplinary artist from Suffolk, England, whose practice is led by materials and process. Each piece responds to the environment, particularly wetlands and riparian habitats. Her charcoal and pastel drawings include incised marks made with found stones and flints on stressed and manipulated paper. Her installations use site-specific materials, becoming physical exchanges—records of presence, observation, and response to the land.
During her residency, Susan proposes to study Bernheim’s beavers and document how their presence has shaped the landscape and affected both the ecosystem and surrounding community. Inspired by beaver rewilding efforts in the UK, she hopes her research at Bernheim will support advocacy and awareness back home. She plans to create large sculptures and drawings using materials gathered directly from the land, informed by her research.
Environmental Artist in Residence – Anthony Corraro
Anthony Corraro is a Kansas City artist and printmaker known for creating ornate, highly detailed, ephemeral prints from dust gathered in surrounding environments. Through a careful process of dyeing and refinement, he transforms discarded remnants of those environments and their inhabitants into intricate works using screen printing techniques. Nothing adheres the dust permanently to the surface; the fragility of each piece encourages an intimate viewing experience, where even a slight breath could disturb the work.
Anthony is concerned about Kentucky Senate Bill 89, which transfers authority over state waterways to the federal government. During his residency, he plans to speak with Bernheim staff to better understand how this legislation may affect Bernheim and the region. He proposes to create ephemeral prints using dust from Bernheim, highlighting themes of filtration, sedimentation, and disintegration by introducing water into the work.
Artist in Residence – Katherine Rutter
Katherine Rutter is an interdisciplinary artist from Arkansas whose handmade paper sculptures, books, prints, and paintings explore ecology, narrative, foraging, and care. While in residence, she plans to create a series of drawings on handmade paper forms using inks and paper made from Bernheim plants, soils, and collected materials. These drawings may later become a children’s book inspired by her explorations at Bernheim.
Regional Artist in Residence – Marilee Salvator
Marilee Salvator is a multidisciplinary artist from Bowling Green. Her work is rooted in an ongoing dialogue with the natural world and reflects ecological systems. She often integrates branches, seed pods, stones, and other natural materials into her paintings and prints to reference cycles of growth, accumulation, and decay.
Her proposal centers on creating site-responsive sculptural works made from gathered natural materials and her newly developed kombucha SCOBY sheets. A SCOBY sheet is a thin, pancake-shaped biofilm of living bacteria and yeast formed during tea fermentation. Marilee has developed these SCOBY sheets into skin-like materials that can be colored, manipulated, and stretched over dimensional forms.
Environmental Artist in Residence – The Unreliable Bestiary
The Unreliable Bestiary is a collaborative artist team from Illinois led by Deke Weaver and Jennifer Allen. Their work combines writing, performance, theater, and multimedia into live productions. Inspired by the literary concept of the unreliable narrator, the medieval bestiary, and predictions that half of Earth’s species could face extinction by 2050, the project aims to create one performance for each letter of the alphabet, with every letter representing an endangered animal or habitat.
To date, The Unreliable Bestiary has produced six works: MONKEY, ELEPHANT, WOLF, BEAR, TIGER, and CETACEAN (The Whale).
At Bernheim, they will develop FOREST, their first habitat-focused multidisciplinary performance. This new work will extend the project’s exploration of the natural world through site, community, and immersive storytelling.
Honorable Mentions
Bernheim also recognizes the following applicants who advanced to the final selection committee. We celebrate the high quality of their proposals and artistic work:
