We are pleased to announce that the 2026 CWC Artists in Residence have been selected! This program offers opportunities for artists working in any medium to promote a deeper experience with the natural world. The selected artists will spend the summer months with open access to the twenty-eight beautiful nature preserves owned and stewarded by the CWC, and create their work centered around the environments they explore. Finished work will be displayed at the Fall Fundraiser on October 7th of this year.
Annie Chapman Brewer
Annie Chapman Brewer is an award-winning musician, educator, and entrepreneur based in Midland, MI. Her horn sound has been described as “delicious” and her “mastery of the horn [is] evident”. Brewer operates a full-time private horn studio, holds the Instructor of Horn position at Saginaw Valley State University, and is a founding member of Trillium Wind Quintet. In 2025, she won an award through the American Prize competition, 2nd place for the Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for her composition and recording of River House on the Prairie. Brewer performs in the Midland and Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestras, and frequents many others throughout Michigan and the Midwest.
Brewer holds a Master of Music degree with an early music minor from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Central Michigan University.
When she isn’t teaching or performing, Annie is hiking new trails with her husband Rick, throwing pottery, and playing with her cat Marjoram.
April Burke
April Burke minored in fine arts as an undergraduate student, and in recent years, has resumed art making and taken painting courses at Central Michigan University, where they are also a professor in the Teacher and Special Education Department. Growing up near forests and water in Maine, April always found joy and solace in nature. Today, their work is centered on the process of mark making, influenced by the Impressionist and Pointillist movements, and deeply inspired by the complex beauty of the natural world and its relation to the subconscious. They create visual works in various mediums, including oil and watercolor paint, and are endlessly inspired by Michigan’s landscapes and natural areas. Their work was accepted into the 2026 Annual Juried CMU Student Art Exhibition, and one of their paintings was purchased by members of the Residence Halls Association, becoming a part of the CMU Art Collection.
Maggie Edwards
My name is Maggie Edwards. I’m 23, and I was born and raised in Northern Michigan. Last year, I graduated with my BS in Psychology from Central Michigan University, and I aspire to work with children in the mental health field. My passions include photography, going on hikes with friends, roadtripping across the country, and painting. I have been painting for as long as I can remember, and my biggest inspirations have always come from nature around me. I am looking forward to sharing this experience with fellow creative nature-lovers thanks to the CWC!
Tina Vivian
Tina Vivian graduated from Alma College with a BFA in fine arts in 1994. In 1998 she received an MFA in Printmaking from Central Michigan University. After twenty years as the Costumer for Alma College’s Department of Theater and Dance, she hung up her scissors and headed for the woods.
As a plein air painter Tina spends many hours outside in all kinds of weather, at all times of day, fair or foul, during winter’s deepest chill or summer’s steamiest heatwave. On every visit to the great outdoors, she is rewarded anew by nature’s incredible variety and capacity to surprise.
Making art in the open air is more than a pastime for Tina and becomes a spiritual experience. While considering her surroundings she allows the atmosphere to show her what is beautiful or asks to be remembered. It’s a privilege she doesn’t take for granted.
Tina says, “The celebration of nature through my work is the most I can give in service to her protection. I seek ways of doing just that whenever and wherever I can.”