News Release

Weir Farm NHP Welcomes June 2025 Artist-in-Residence: Charis J. Carmichael Braun

News Release Date: May 25, 2025 WILTON/RIDGEFIELD, Conn. – Charis J. Carmichael Braun’s large paintings depict humans engaging with wild, fractured environments. She says, “With expressive brushstrokes and emotional color, I push and pull the environment to focus towards the terrain of the human body.” A graduate of the New York Academy of Art, she notes that the figure is always present in her work, even when it is not explicitly depicted. When she thinks about landscape painting, she says she leans towards images stemming from human ambition and desire found in Romanticism, Hudson River School, and Post-Impressionism. During her residency in June at Weir Farm, she looks forward to experiencing an environment built out of the legacy of American Impressionism.

Artist-in-Residence Open Studio Program Saturday June 21, 11:00 am to 12:30 pm
Stop by the Artist-in-Residence Studio between 11:00 and 12:30 to meet June Artist Charis J. Carmichael Braun, view her work, and learn more about the Park's Artist-in-Residence program. The Friends of Weir Farm will offer light refreshments and fun art activities for children at this year’s Open Studios. Join us - it’s informal and artsy!

More about June’s Artist-in-Residence
Charis J. Carmichael Braun grew up in New Ulm, MN, and has lived in New York for nearly 20 years working in arts administration and her studio. She earned her BA from Bethany Lutheran College (Mankato, MN) and her MFA from the New York Academy of Art (New York, NY). In 2020 she received a NYSCA grant from the Huntington Arts Council (Huntington, NY) to paint portraits of beekeepers on Long Island. She has taught Art History at Farmingdale State College SUNY, and Bethany Lutheran College. Learn more at www.charisjcarmichaelbraun.com.

About the Weir Farm Artist-in-Residence (AIR) Program
Weir Farm’s AIR Program continues the creative legacy started by the Weir Family through the work of contemporary artists. Weir Farm has inspired thousands of artists for more than 140 years, including over 250 Artists-in-Residence. The park hosts six visual artists each year to spend one month, from May to October, living and working onsite. The park’s founding legislation highlights the ongoing presence of working artists on the site as a key characteristic of the park. An active residency program ensures the park meets its legislated mission to continue the artistic tradition started by Julian Alden Weir in 1882.

The Weir Farm National Historical Park Artist-in-Residence program is supported by the Friends of Weir Farm NHP, the park's authorized philanthropic partner. This year, the Friends of Weir Farm received a grant from Tauck, a Connecticut-based business that offers upscale guided travel, specifically to support the AIR program.

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About Weir Farm National Historical Park
Weir Farm National Historical Park is a National Park for Art, a place that has inspired thousands of artists since 1882 when Julian Alden Weir, America’s most beloved Impressionist, made it his summer home. Today, artists and visitors of all ages enjoy the park’s stunning landscape, where they walk in the footsteps of American masters and create art themselves. Learn more at www.nps.gov/wefa and visit us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/WeirFarmNPS, YouTube www.youtube.com/WeirFarmNHS, and Instagram @WeirFarmNPS.

About the National Park Service
More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 430+ national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov, and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.