Artists in Residence (2026⁠—⁠2027)

Redefine making and teaching the craft

Three artists in residence, September to May.

Typically, you come, you perform, you move on, and nothing you know gets passed on.

We know what you have to offer and that you could change how your craft is made and taught. We invite our artists in residence to be an instrument in something larger than a performance: building community and belonging inside a building devoted to healing.

An Experience Museo residency runs September to May at Museo, a medical building in Houston's Museum District where light, color, and art were in the plan from the beginning along with the medicine.

You make new work across the season. All at once, you show it in a room that holds people who came for an appointment, staff, neighbors, clinicians, or people who came for the music. And you mentor the fellows coming up behind you.

That last part is a requirement. We look for artists ready to teach what they know because the season is built on what gets passed between people.

Museo was built around one question: how would a medical environment feel if architecture, art, and care were designed as one thing from the start. Experience Museo is the next question: what happens between the people who come into it. A residency here is a year spent working on that, and what you think changes what the season becomes.

You take ownership of your craft, and the field shifts a little because you were here.

The Three Artists This Season

Eleni Calenos Soprano

A Greek soprano known for the clarity and warmth of her voice and the dignity of her characterizations. She made her US debut with Opera in the Heights in 2007 and returns to Museo, where she last performed in 2025.

Teruhiko Toda Pianist & Conductor

Houston-based, staff accompanist at the University of Houston and Lone Star College–Kingwood, and former music director of Houston Grand Opera's Opera to Go! Mr. Toda is a pianist and conductor who makes room for the voice and for silence.

Benjamín Serur Cellist

A Venezuelan cellist based in Houston, who began at five through El Sistema and has held principal positions with the Houston Youth Symphony and the Virtuosi of Houston. A musician formed in a tradition that treats an ensemble as a kind of community.

What the Residency Is

A season here is a year of making and a year of teaching, and we do not separate them. You make new work and show it in the building, and the showing takes a different shape each season. This season, each artist in residence leads a salon evening inside one of the season's themes, alongside a musician fellow, the digital storyteller, and people from the community. You mentor the fellows, taking the musicians toward performances of their own. You also learn digital storytelling with them. Nobody here is the only expert, and none of us is here only to perform.

You leave with your own craft better understood because you had to hand it to someone else.

Coming In as an Artist

Residencies for 2026–2027 are filled, and we still want to hear from you. We host guest artists across the season, and the 2027–2028 residencies open next year.

We work across disciplines. Music and performance of every kind, with storytelling, visual art, movement, and writing alongside them. Tell us about your practice whatever form it takes.

We keep a roster. Fill it in once and you are on file for guest slots this season, for the 2027–2028 residencies, and for salons and workshops as they come up. There is no deadline. Here is what the form asks:

The basics

Your name, email, phone number, and where you are based.

Your craft

What you make and how long you have been making it.

Your work

One or two samples, pasted as links. Check they work for someone who is not you.

A short bio

A few sentences on where you are from and what you are working toward.

Where people find you

Your website and any social media you keep along with what you use it for. Nobody is required to have an account.

Your thoughts on the arts and healing:

Up to 300 words, or a couple of minutes on video. Whichever feels more like you.

What you would want to teach

Someone coming up behind you is going to ask. What would you want to pass on?

A few quick questions

What you are open to, how you heard about us, any access needs, and anything else you want us to know.

Where the Work Is Seen

Every season opens with a concert and closes with one. In between, we host much more, and the closing concert shows what we built during the season.

The work runs all year, and it shows up in more than one form. Concerts and salon concerts, workshops with the fellows and with people from the city, online sessions, and conversations. The rest is announced as the year goes because that is how the season is made.

And the building itself, which most people walk through on a day they would rather not have.

This season's dates
Authorship

Individual programs may involve invited contributors, collaborators, or partner institutions. Unless otherwise stated in a signed agreement, contributors retain authorship of their individual works, while the Experience Museo program structure, framing, and editorial context remain the intellectual property of Piquitas Inc.

What We Do Not Do

These are conversations and creative work. We do not provide therapy. If anything heavy surfaces, we do our best to help the person find the right support.

Nothing here is designed around a diagnosis. The season is open to anyone in the city, whatever their relationship to memory is.

Join our mailing list

Know what is coming, all year.

Credits & Stewardship
Experience Museo is a cultural program conceived and stewarded by Piquitas Inc., operating through commissioned programs and collaborations at Museo Institute for Medical Arts and with select partners.

The Experience Museo program structure, framing, and editorial context are the intellectual property of Piquitas Inc. Individual programs may involve invited contributors, collaborators, or partner institutions. Unless otherwise stated in a signed agreement, contributors retain authorship of their individual works.

Scope
Experience Museo programs are cultural and experiential in nature and are not medical, therapeutic, legal, or professional services. Participation does not establish a provider–patient, clinical, advisory, or professional relationship.