How to Apply to the Core Program
Applications for the Core Residency Program 2025–2026 term open on January 1, 2025, and close on April 1, 2025. If you have questions, please contact Joe Eldredge, Core Residency Program Coordinator: jeldredge@mfah.org
The Core Program awards residencies to exceptional, highly motivated visual artists and critical writers who have completed their undergraduate or graduate training and are working to develop a sustainable practice. Residents engage with a wide range of leading artists, critics, curators, and art historians who are invited to meet individually with the residents, lead seminars, and deliver public lectures.
Fellows are expected to be active in their own creative and/or critical practice. Core fellows come together for a yearlong seminar, the content of which is driven by contemporary concerns, the interests and work of the fellows, and the Core lecture series and visitors.
The residency term is nine months, from September to May, and fellows may apply for a second term. Because the program is intended to foster intensive participation in an active peer group, including biweekly seminar meetings, Core fellows must reside in Houston for the duration of the Core term. Tuesday mornings are reserved for group discussions, and public lectures take place on Thursday evenings. Each spring the program mounts an exhibition of work produced during the current residency term. Critical studies residents may apply for support for a curatorial project in their second year. Residents receive a $21,500 stipend, a private studio or office, and borrowing privileges at the MFAH Hirsch Library and Rice University Fondren Library. Limited administrative and financial support is available for successful international applicants seeking J-1 visas through the program’s partner organization, International Arts & Artists. No support is provided for other visas.
The Core Program at the Glassell School of Art receives generous funding from The Joseph & Sylvia Slifka Foundation; The Powell Foundation; and The Glassell Family Foundation.
Core fellowships have been underwritten by Anchorage Foundation of Texas; Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Inc.; Mr. Brad Blume; Mr. Ronald A. Logan; McClain Gallery; Karen S. Pulaski; and The Arch and Stella Rowan Foundation, Inc.
Additional support is provided by: Ellen and David Berman; Ms. Karol Kreymer and Dr. Robert J. Card; Ms. Bettie Cartwright; Mrs. Jereann H. Chaney Mr. and Mrs. Jamal H. Daniel; Heidi and David Gerger; Cecily Horton; Scott and Judy Nyquist; Mr. and Mrs. Howard C. Robinson; Marc Schindler; Alana R. Spiwak and Sam L. Stolbun; and Cynthia Toles;
Endowments for the Core Program have been provided by Leslie and Brad Bucher; gifts in memory of Laura Lee Blanton; the estate of Margaret Gillingham; Rusty Burnett; the Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation; Eliza Lovett Randall; Herbert C. Wells; and Warren A. Hadler.