About the UH High School Artist Academy

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• Important Information

  Date: Monday-Friday, June 5-17, 2023 | 9am - 4pm

  Location: University of Houston, Elgin Street Studios
  All Artist Academy activities take place on the University of Houston main campus. Each Academy day begins and ends at the Elgin Street Studios, UH School of Art, 4224 Elgin St, Houston, TX 77004

  Application Requirements and submission instructions:
  

  1. PDF Portfolio:
     • Three to five examples of recent artworks must be submitted as a single PDF document via email to CAA@central.uh.edu. 
     • On the PDF document, each artwork should be labeled with a title, dimensions, media, and year created. 
     • The PDF document should saved using the following file naming convention: "LastName_FirstName_Artist_Academy_2023" (ex: Picasso_Pablo_Artist_Academy_2023)
  2. Completed submission of the form below

  Apply Here

  
  

  Tuition and Fees:
  

  $600 - Tuition, supplies, and fees for the complete two-week Academy.
  UH Artist Academy is a day camp; housing is not provided. Students are expected to bring their own lunch. A monitored pick-up and drop-off zone will be available, or accepted students may purchase a $35 parking pass for the duration of the Academy from UH Parking. 
  

  Available Scholarships:
  

  Scholarships are available to a limited number of students. Students may indicate on their application whether they would like to be considered.
  

  Important Dates:

  APPLICATION DEADLINE (including 3-5 artwork pdf submission via email to caa@central.uh.edu) 
  Monday, May 15
  

  Academy schedule: 
  Monday, June 5 - Friday, June 9, 9am - 4pm
  Monday, June 12 - Friday, June 16, 9am - 4pm 

  Final celebration and exhibition
  Saturday, June 17, 4- 6pm

• About Artist Academy Morning Inspiration Sessions

  The University of Houston is an exhilarating intersection point for a wide variety of different traditions and types of expression, invention, scientific exploration, business, and wellness.  Each morning, students will participate in a different activity somewhere inspiring and perhaps unexpected on the UH campus, meeting a variety of luminary scholars, scientists, public servants, and artists.  Each retreat morning experience is designed to fuel new creative ideas and new perspectives.  

  Some topics of exploration:

  What is art made of? 
  A musical exploration of Frank Stella’s massive art installation Euphonia, with cellist Evan Leslie and artist Debra Barrera.   

  How does art bring us together?  
  An interactive dance workshop with Gabriela Estrada plus an examination of artworks in the Wortham Theater lobby.   

  How do we tell our story? 
  An exploration of the Blaffer Museum through creative, autobiographical writing exercises.  

  How do we change people’s minds?
  A visit to the UH Law Center.  

  How do we see?
  A visit to UH College of Optometry.   

  How do we feel and think?
  An experiment facilitated by the Your Brain on Art Laboratory at the UH Cullen College of Engineering.

  What is a Houston artist?
  A dive into the archives of many of Houston’s most visionary artists in Special Collections of the UH M. D. Anderson and Art and Architecture Libraries.  

• About Artist Academy Afternoon Studio Sessions

  Who are you as an artist?

  Each afternoon students will work on their own artistic projects in the facilities of the UH School of Art. Students will enjoy close supervision and guidance from lead teaching artist Douglas Welsh, plus other special guest artist-teachers. They will participate in group critiques with their peers. They will have access to university-quality feedback and university equipment.

  Students will show their work in a culminating exhibition presented in the galleries of the UH School of Art’s Elgin Street Studios. The exhibition's opening reception will welcome many of Houston's most prominent artists, in addition to students' families and friends.

  

• About our Faculty and Facilitators

  Douglas Welsh

  Lead studio teaching artist 

  Douglas Welsh is a painter based in Houston and co-founder of the G5 Collective. He received his MFA from University of Houston and his BA from Bates College.  Douglas has participated in group exhibitions at Studio Nine D in NYC, and F Magazine, Galveston Artist Residency, Blaffer Art Museum, Foltz Fine Art, Anya Tish Gallery, Box 13, Sanman Studios, Hardy and Nance Studios, Elgin Street Studios, UH Third Space Gallery, and Conroe Art League.  In 2022, his work was included in New American Paintings, edition 162.   
  
  

  Debra Barrera

  Artist mentor and lead UH Public Art facilitator 

  Debra Barrera is an artist based in Houston, Texas. She graduated with an MFA from the University of Houston in 2010 and has since been included in numerous exhibitions nationally including a solo exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston as well as exhibitions at the San Diego Museum of Art, and the Art Museum of Southeast Texas. Her work is in the permanent collections at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and Tyler Museum of Art and has been published in Art in America, New American Paintings, and The Houston Chronicle. In 2015 Barrera was artist-in-residence at Rice University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy where her work is now a part of the public art collection. In 2019 Barrera received a prestigious Joan Mitchell Grant. 
  
  

  Evan Leslie

  Lead morning session facilitator and director of the UH Community Arts Academy  

  Evan Leslie is an arts educator and cellist.  He is director of the University of Houston’s Community Arts Academy.  In Houston, Evan was formerly the Managing Producer of Public Programs for the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and Director of Education at Da Camera of Houston. He has taught at HSPVA, University of St. Thomas, and UH.  From 2013 – 2020 Evan was Artistic Producer of Lincoln Center’s New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. During his time at the “Lincoln Center Library,” Evan directed hundreds of music, theater, and dance programs, working collaboratively with the Metropolitan Opera, the Juilliard School, The Public Theater, New York City Ballet, WNYC radio, The International Contemporary Ensemble, and Sesame Workshop.  He has worked with a diverse spectrum of artists, from pianist Emanuel Ax to Grover the Muppet; from actor Alan Cumming to choreographer Pam Tanowitz; from composer/lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda to director/filmmaker Julie Taymor.  
  
  

  Katherine Veneman

  Artist mentor and Blaffer Museum Education Curator  

  Katherine Veneman is curator of education at Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston, where she oversees the museum’s nationally recognized education program, which includes a wide range of public and educational programs as well as guided tours for adults, university students, and youth. She is responsible for developing collaborative partnerships with university departments and designing university student programs. 

  Previously, Veneman, who is a practicing painter, maintained a studio in Providence, Rhode Island, and from 2000–2003 was the Director of Hera Gallery/Hera Educational Foundation, a non-profit artist space in Wakefield, Rhode Island. She has exhibited her work on the East Coast and in Houston. 

  Veneman holds an M.F.A. in painting from American University in Washington, D.C., and received her B.A., summa cum laude, from Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts. She is a native of the Washington, D.C. area. 
  
  

  Stephan Hillerbrand

  Artist mentor and Director of the UH Art & Technology Center

  The collaborative husband/wife team of Mary Magsamen and Stephan Hillerbrand has been working together over the past several years after meeting at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Their work has been included in group exhibitions and screenings nationally and internationally including solo exhibitions at the Butler Institute of American Art and the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia. Their work has recently been in group exhibitions at LA Freewaves Film and Video Festival, The Center for Photography at Woodstock, the Boston Center for the Arts and the Ann Arbor Film Festival. They were awarded the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Residency in New York City at The Woolworth Building, a residency at the Experimental Television Center and an Ohio Arts Council Individual Creativity Award.

  Stephan Hillerbrand's exhibitions include Nexus Contemporary Art in Atlanta, Artspace in New Haven and the Mississippi Museum of Art. Hillerbrand is a National Endowment for the Arts and Art Matters Grant recipient and a MacDowell Colony Fellow. He was a Fulbright Fellow for the German Technology and Education seminar and has been awarded a second Fulbright Fellowship to study at ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany.
   

  Garrett Griffin

  Studio teaching artist

  Garrett Griffin was born into a military family and lived in several places internationally and in the states. These experiences in various cultures and environments gave him a strong interest into how societies and the natural world are organized and formed. He has taken that interest into his work, by making drawings, paintings and sculptures that are influenced by manmade and natural forms, such as pupae, nests, redlining and migration patterns.

  Garrett received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Texas at Arlington in 2013. After graduating, he moved to New York and lived there for 6 years, showing his work in several group exhibitions and also attending the Vermont Studio Center. While in New York, Garrett freelanced at galleries as an art handler; the experience of working in and around galleries was a second education in fine arts by surrounding himself with other makers and recent art graduates. The experiences of being around other painters, as well as being in an art world hub, helped push his work and helped him realize a return to an academic setting would help his practice.

  Garrett is now attending UH for his MFA in painting. Since being in Houston, he has been part of group shows at Sanman Studios and Community Artist Collective, while being featured in Glasstire’s Top 5 and the Houston Chronicle. Garrett's current practice consists mostly of drawings and painterly sculptures that center around the body and mapping. He uses materials such as burlap, plaster, concrete and rice paper to create textures that allude to natural and bodily forms 
  
  

  Michelle Girardot

  UH Community Arts Academy Program Manager