BLOCK Program

The Studio School at the Glassell School of Art offers an intensely focused one-to-two-year program for advanced artists with an ongoing studio practice. The BLOCK program sits between a residency and a graduate program, and encourages the development of a peer group of artists, allowing for lasting interactions and shared learning.

Each program participant receives weekly individual critiques from artists, curators, and critics. Weekly morning seminars, which require preparation, focus on other contemporary artists’ practices and professionalization practices, combining lectures, discussions, and field trips. Drawing from the rich resources of the MFAH, with trips to exhibitions and visits from curators, BLOCK expects significant developments in each participant’s work. The BLOCK program is led by Francesca Fuchs with Laura Hughes. 

2024–2025 Applications

Deadlines & Process

  • Applications are accepted from March 1 to April 22, 2024, at 11:59 p.m.
  • Submit your application through SlideRoom. Please note that the processing fee is $12.

Information Session

  • Wednesday, March 20, at 12:45 p.m. in the Favrot Auditorium at the Glassell School of Art.
  • Program coordinator Francesca Fuchs, current BLOCK participants, and faculty member Laura Hughes are on hand to answer questions.

Application Guidelines

  • All text submissions need to be in PDF format.
  • Please make sure each text PDF contains your name and email address.
  • 10 works: images, and/or video, and/or audio (if video/audio 5 minutes max).
  • One-page statement of intent, i.e. a proposal of what you plan to do during BLOCK (if at the Glassell School, add the name of a Glassell instructor who knows you/your work).
  • One-page résumé/CV (list) with your education—elsewhere and at Glassell—and exhibition(s).
  • Brief, one-paragraph bio of your life (narrative).
  • Image list containing title, date, medium, and dimensions (HxWxD) for each work

► BLOCK FAQs and Application Info

Questions? glassell@mfah.org / 713.639.7500

Exhibitions

2024
BLOCK XXIV
On view at the Glassell School of Art from October 25 to December 1.

2023
BLOCK XXIII
On view at the Glassell School of Art from October 13 to December 1.

2022
BLOCK XXII
On view at the Glassell School of Art from September 8 to December 2.

2021
BLOCK XXI
On view at the Glassell School of Art from September 17 to December 3.

2020
BLOCK XX
Virtual presentation focusing on landscape and environmental repair, solitude, dreamscapes, and psychological journeys.

These exhibitions are organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

The Glassell Studio School exhibition program receives generous support from The Skiles Foundation.

The Glassell School of Art receives generous funding from the Glassell Family; The Skiles Foundation; Leslie and Brad Bucher; Mr. and Mrs. John S. Orton; Sue and Rusty Burnett; and additional generous donors.