The Menil Collection The Menil Collection

The Menil Drawing Institute was established in 2008 in recognition of drawing’s centrality in the lives of artists and its crucial role in modern and contemporary artistic culture. The Drawing Institute has since developed an international profile for exhibitions, scholarship, and collaboration.

In 2018, a dedicated building for the Menil Drawing Institute, designed by Johnston Marklee, was inaugurated. It is now the site of regular drawings exhibitions, an annual monumental wall drawing commission, public programs, and study.

The unique 30,146-square-foot building features a trio of spacious courtyards and a design that modulates daylight in a way that both illuminates and protects delicate works on paper.

The Janie C. Lee Drawing Room at the Menil Drawing Institute provides individuals and small classes access to the Menil’s collection of drawings not currently on view. It is open by appointment to scholars, students, artists, curators, and members of the community. To request an appointment, download and complete the appropriate form below and return by email to academicoutreach@menil.org at least three weeks in advance of your desired appointment date. All requests are subject to availability and approval.

The establishment of a Fellowship Program is a key component of the Menil Drawing Institute as it aspires to become a major research center on modern and contemporary drawing. The program will foster the highest level of scholarship and make possible rich, interdisciplinary, object-based conversations on the drawing medium’s history, theory, criticism, and practice.

Click here to see more information and application instructions for the Menil Drawing Institute Scholars Program.

Click here for information on Inside Drawings: A Workshop on the Materiality of Unique Works on Paper, at the Menil Drawing Institute, Houston, funded through Getty’s Paper Project initiative.