The Menil Collection The Menil Collection

The 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 fosters the highest level of scholarship and makes possible rich, interdisciplinary, object-based conversations on the drawing medium’s history, theory, criticism, and practice. The Menil Drawing Institute offers three fellowships: the Menil Drawing Institute Pre-Doctoral Fellowship; the Menil Drawing Institute Research Fellowship; and the Morgan-Menil Research Fellowship.

• Fellows at the Drawing Institute will receive a stipend to cover living and other expenses incurred during the Fellowship.

• Menil Drawing Institute Research Fellows and Menil Drawing Institute Pre-Doctoral Fellows will be housed in a fully-furnished apartment within a recently-refurbished historic bungalow on the Menil campus. Housing is not provided for the Morgan-Menil Fellow.

• Fellows will be assigned a workspace at the Menil Drawing Institute to use for the duration of the fellowship.

• Fellows will have access to the collections, archives, and staff at the Menil; and to libraries throughout Houston, including the Menil’s library.

Eligibility

Applications are welcome from American and international researchers pursuing a doctorate in art history whose work pertains to the study of modern and contemporary drawing practices or adopts a transhistorical approach to the medium of drawing. Applicants must have completed their graduate coursework and passed any required pre-doctoral exams (“orals”) before the term of the fellowship begins, if such requirements exist at their institutions. Applicants’ dissertation topics must be approved by their institutions before the term of the fellowship begins.

Terms of Appointment

• The Menil Drawing Institute Pre-Doctoral Fellowship is 9 months in length, and spans the academic calendar, lasting from September to June.

• The Fellow will receive a stipend of $3,300 per month to cover living and other expenses incurred during the Fellowship.

• The Fellow will be housed in a fully-furnished apartment within a recently-refurbished historic bungalow on the Menil campus.

• The Fellow will be assigned a workspace at the Menil Drawing Institute to use for the duration of the fellowship.

• The Fellow will have access to the collections, archives, and staff at the Menil; and to libraries throughout Houston, including the Menil’s library, Fondren Library at Rice University, the Libraries of the University of Houston, and the Hirsch Library at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. In addition, they will be able to request references via Inter-Library Loan via the Menil Library.

• The Fellow is expected to reside in Houston for the duration of the fellowship and to participate in the cultural and intellectual life of the Menil. They will typically make a presentation on their research to Menil staff and invited guests, and will also give a public talk.

Application Process

Applicants for the Pre-Doctoral Fellowship are required to provide a project proposal (not to exceed 1,000 words), a tentative schedule of work to be achieved during the fellowship period, a curriculum vitae, official undergraduate and graduate transcripts, a writing sample, and two letters of recommendation.

All application materials should be submitted via email to mdi@menil.org. It is the applicant’s responsibility to make sure that the application is complete and has been received by the museum.

The application for the 2024–2025 Menil Drawing Institute Pre-Doctoral Fellowship is due December 16, 2024.

Interviews will be conducted remotely in early January 2025. Applicants will be notified of decisions by February 2025.

Offered by invitation, the Menil Drawing Institute Research Fellowship is intended for scholars, conservators, artists, choreographers, writers, or others whose practice pertains to modern and contemporary drawing or adopts a transhistorical approach to the medium of drawing. Invitees will have a proven track record in their fields and a specific project to propose. That project should ideally connect with the drawing collection and/or with exhibition and research projects at the Menil Collection.

Terms of Appointment

• The Menil Drawing Institute Research Fellowship is offered for periods from 3 months to 9 months (with the occasional possibility of staying for shorter duration of 1 or 2 months), between September and June.

• The Fellow will receive a stipend of between $4,400 and $5,500 per month, commensurate with experience, to cover living and other expenses incurred during the Fellowship.

• The Fellow will be housed in a fully-furnished apartment within a recently-refurbished historic bungalow on the Menil campus.

• The Fellow is expected to reside in Houston for the duration of the fellowship and to participate in the cultural and intellectual life of the Menil. They will typically make a presentation on their research to Menil staff and invited guests, and will also give a public talk.

Every other year, the Menil Drawing Institute and the Morgan Drawing Institute, New York will award one research fellowship of three to nine months to support independent projects on some aspect of the history, theory, interpretation, or cultural meaning of drawing throughout the history of art. Preference will be given to projects that would benefit from the resources of the Morgan Library & Museum and the Menil Collection.

Terms of Appointment

The Morgan-Menil Research Fellow is expected to spend part of the fellowship period in residence at the Morgan Library & Museum and another part at the Menil Collection. The majority of the Fellow’s time will be spent on the research project for which the fellowship is awarded, but the Fellow is expected to participate fully in the intellectual life of the Morgan and the Menil and to attend Drawing Institute programs during their tenure at each institution. The Fellow will make a presentation on their research during the time of the fellowship at both institutions. A stipend commensurate with experience will be paid during the course of the fellowship in monthly increments ranging between $3,880 and $5,100. (For more details, see the Funding section below.)

General Information

• Health insurance is not provided.
  
• The Fellow is expected to make their own travel and housing arrangements, but the -cost of round-trip travel between New York and Houston is covered.
  
• For foreign applicants, non-financial assistance with procuring a visa is provided.
  
• Fellowship is non-renewable.
  
• Additional information is available here.
  

Application Process

Applicants are asked to submit the following:

• A cover letter addressing the applicant’s area of interest and expertise. The cover letter should also include a chronology specifying the desired length of the fellowship, and when the applicant would hope to be at each institution (the total duration of the fellowship is between 3 and 9 months during the academic year). If a fellowship is sought for a specific time (e.g. around a professor’s semester-long sabbatical), that should be clearly indicated in the letter
  
• A curriculum vitae
  
• A research proposal (maximum 3 pages, double-spaced) specifying what the applicant wishes to accomplish during the fellowship period. The proposal should detail how the project would benefit from the resources of the Morgan and the Menil.
  
• A writing sample, in English
  
• Two letters from academic or professional references in support of the proposed project. For mid-career scholars, only one letter is required
  

All application materials must be in English and should be submitted online: themorgan.org/opportunities/drawing-institute-application

Letters of reference should be emailed directly to: morganmenilfellowship@themorgan.org

The application for the 2024–2025 Morgan-Menil Research Fellowship is due December 3, 2023. Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.

Successful applicants will be notified by March 2024.

The Menil Drawing Institute Pre-Doctoral Fellow will receive a stipend of $29,700 to cover living and other expenses incurred during the Fellowship. This stipend will be paid during the course of the fellowship in monthly increments of $3,300. Fellows are not considered employees of the Menil and will not be eligible to participate in the Menil Foundation’s Employee Benefits Plan. The Menil will not make any payroll deductions or withholdings. Fellows are responsible for all taxes associated with the stipend.

The Menil Drawing Institute Research Fellow will receive a stipend to cover living and other expenses incurred during the Fellowship. This stipend will be paid during the course of the fellowship in monthly increments between $4,400 and $5,500, commensurate with experience. Fellows are not considered employees of the Menil Collection and will not be eligible to participate in the Menil Foundation’s Employee Benefits Plan. The Menil will not make any payroll deductions or withholdings. Fellows are responsible for all taxes associated with the stipend.

The Menil-Morgan Research Fellow will receive a stipend to cover living and other expenses incurred during the Fellowship. Commensurate with experience, the stipend will be paid during the course of the fellowship in monthly increments $3,880 for pre-doctoral fellows, $4,750 for post-doctoral fellows in the first seven years beyond their Ph.D., or $5,100 for mid-career scholars, plus a modest travel allowance while at the Morgan. While at the Menil, fellows are not considered employees of the Menil Collection and will not be eligible to participate in the Menil Foundation’s Employee Benefits Plan. The Menil will not make any payroll deductions or withholdings. Fellows are responsible for all taxes associated with the stipend.

Foreign Fellows must be in good standing with the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service and have authorization (a J-1 visa) that permits them to conduct the activities for which they have been designated a Menil Drawing Institute Fellow or Morgan-Menil Research Fellow. When possible, the Menil will assist fellows in acquiring the documents required to start that authorization process.

Visa applications for Menil Drawing Institute Pre-Doctoral and Research Fellows will be handled by the Director of Human Resources. Fellows may need to consult with immigration lawyers, a cost not assumed by the Menil without written approval. For foreign applicants to the Morgan-Menil Research Fellowship, non-financial assistance with procuring a visa is provided.

Q: How and in what format should I submit my official transcript(s)?

A: The easiest way for the Menil to receive your official transcripts is electronically sent through your institution’s transcript service (such as National Student Clearinghouse) via email to mdi@menil.org. If this type of option is not available, we will be flexible and accept scans, via email to mdi@menil.org, of official transcripts that were delivered to you physically. If neither of these options are available, we will accept a PDF of your unofficial transcript, but may ask for an official transcript to be provided during the interview process, if applicable. Kindly refrain from mailing official transcripts to the Menil via post.

Q: How do I know that my application, including supporting documentation, was received?

A: The Menil will confirm in writing via email that your application materials were received, including your letters of recommendation and transcripts, which may have been sent by others on your behalf and under separate cover.

Enquiries about the Menil Drawing Institute Fellowship Program should be addressed to mdi@menil.org.

Charles Haxthausen
Menil Drawing Institute Research Fellow, Spring 2025
Robert Sterling Clark Professor of Art History in the Graduate Program in the History of Art at Williams College
Temporality and the Art of Cy Twombly

Jana La Brasca
Menil Drawing Institute Pre-Doctoral Fellow, 2024-2025
Ph.D. Candidate, University of Texas, Austin
The Machine That Makes the World: Alice Aycock to Scale (1968–1986)

Audrey Storm
Morgan-Menil Research Fellow 2024-2025, Fall 2024
PhD Candidate, University of Southern California, Dornsife
Through Line: Making Abstraction in the Transpacific Northwest

Björn Egging
Menil Drawing Institute Research Fellow, Spring 2024
Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
The drawings of Joseph Beuys

Michelle Donnelly
Menil Drawing Institute Pre-Doctoral Fellow, 2023-2024
Ph.D. Candidate, Yale University
Spatialized Impressions: American Printmaking Outside the Workshop, 1935-1975

Renee Gladman
Menil Drawing Institute Research Fellow, Fall 2023
Writer and artist
Figuration as Field

Isabel Bird
Menil Drawing Institute Pre-Doctoral Fellow, 2022-2023
PhD Candidate, Harvard University
Drawn from the Classroom: Process, Perception, and Learning in US Drawing Practices, ca. 1960-1980

Margaret Holben Ellis
Menil Drawing Institute Research Fellow, Spring 2023
Eugene Thaw Professor Emerita of Paper Conservation; Conservation Consultant, Villa La Pietra Developing a Protocol for Describing the Color of White Paper

Brian Leahy
Morgan-Menil Research Fellow, 2022-2023
PhD Candidate, Northwestern University
For Immediate Release: Contemporary Art and Exhibition Media in the United States, 1968-1984

Anna Lovatt
Menil Drawing Institute Research Fellow, 2022
Associate Professor of Art History, Southern Methodist University
Lines of Resolution: Drawing and the Small Screen

Filippo Bosco
Menil Drawing Institute Pre-Doctoral Fellow, 2021-2022
Ph.D. Candidate, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa
Drawing and conceptualism: paradigms, practices and transnational exchanges in Italy (1969-1979)

Saskia Verlaan
Menil Drawing Institute Pre-Doctoral Fellow, 2020-2021
Ph.D. Candidate, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York
Disegno Aperto: Drawing in Italy, 1959-1979

Charlotte Healy
Morgan-Menil Pre-Doctoral Fellow, 2020-2021
Ph.D. Candidate, The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
Paul Klee’s Hand

Antonia Pocock
Morgan-Menil Pre-Doctoral Fellow, 2018-2019
Ph.D. Candidate, The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
Drawing The Street: Claes Oldenburg and Figurative Expressionism in the 1950s

Erica DiBenedetto
Morgan-Menil Pre-Doctoral Fellow, 2015-2016
Ph.D. Candidate, Princeton University
Drawing from Architecture: The Conceptual Method of Sol LeWitt’s Art, 1965–80

Kent Minturn
Morgan-Menil Fellow, 2013-2014
Lecturer, Columbia University, New York
Drawing, Writing, Speaking: Jean Dubuffet’s “lerdlacanpane” (1948) and the Emergence of “Écrits Bruts”

Barbara Rose
Morgan-Menil Fellow, 2011-2012
Independent Scholar and Curator, New York
The Impact of Medieval Illumination on Modern Drawing