Where art, innovation, and healing converge to create a new kind of medical experience.
A call for one storyteller and story-holder in Houston. Paid fellowship for the 2026–27 season.
Deep listening. Learn it, then lead it.
• Who: Storytellers of any background, eighteen or older, in the Houston area
• How many: One fellow
• When: The season runs September to May. You begin working with mentors in October.
• Pay: A stipend of at least $1,500 for the season, plus $100 to $250 for every workshop day you lead, across three to nine community workshops.
• Cost to apply: Free, always
• Applications: Open now, closing September 7, 2026, at 12 pm CDT
This fellowship sits inside Echoes of Memory, our 2026–27 season. If you have not read about the season and the world you would be joining, continue reading.
We are choosing one storyteller in Houston to join us for a season as a fellow. You learn the craft, you train as a facilitator, and you help other people tell their own stories. This is bigger than a fellowship. It is the start of real work.
From October through to Echoes of Memory: A Festival of Voices in May, you learn digital storytelling, you train to lead it, and you hold space for others to find their own voice. You are also the one who holds the memory of the season. You are there through all of it, at rehearsals, salons, gatherings, and concerts, documenting what happens and shaping it into story. You do this alongside three young musicians and three professional artists, in a building devoted to healing.
We pay you because your time and your craft are real. You are trained. You are mentored. You finish with a digital story of your own, a facilitation practice, and paid work you can build on. Any storyteller in Houston aged eighteen or older can apply, and applying is always free.
By May, you know what a story does for the person telling it and for the person hearing it. That is what this fellowship is for.
• A stipend of at least $1,500 for the season, which covers your digital storytelling training, your facilitator training, and your work facilitating the artists in residence and the music fellows
• Paid community work on top: a flat daily facilitator rate for every community workshop you lead, three to nine across the season
• Two mentors across the season: one in storytelling and one in cultural work. You work closest with Horten Barrios-Gómez, our Chief Storyteller, and you have time with our three artists in residence
• Your own website and profile page, built by our team, a real start to your presence as an artist and facilitator, and yours to keep
• A written record of your fellowship, yours to show: your facilitation hours, the settings and groups you worked with, and who supervised you
• A finished digital story of your own, presented at Echoes of Memory: A Festival of Voices, the concert that closes the season on May 1, 2027
• A place in the community of practice at Experience Museo with the people who keep coming back and keep making things together
You must be eighteen or older. This fellowship involves leading workshops with members of the community, so it is for adults. If that is you, and something in you says this is yours, apply and tell us why.
Any kind of storytelling background is welcome: film, video, writing, spoken word, photography, audio, or something we have not thought of. You can arrive untrained and unsure of yourself. What you need is a story to tell and the will to help others tell theirs.
You should live in the Houston area and be able to take part in person. Museo Institute for Medical Arts, in the Museum District, hosts the in-person sessions and performances.
Applying is free. Always. If money, distance, or anything else is standing in your way, tell us. We will help you find a way to apply.
This fellowship makes you a storyteller and a facilitator. Two real skills, both yours to keep.
You learn digital storytelling: The craft, taught the way it was built: you find a story worth telling, shape it into a short script, and produce it into a short digital story of your own. This is the method that has trained tens of thousands of storytellers around the world. It is also a recognized method in health research, used in published studies with immigrant and refugee communities, and it will be yours.
You train as a facilitator: You learn to lead the process for other people. How to hold a room, how to help someone find their story, how to guide them without taking over. This is a rare skill, and it is the heart of what you gain here.
You facilitate, for real: You work alongside our music fellows to help them make their stories, helping each of them find and tell the story of their own season, in their own voice. You also help run storytelling sessions with our artists in residence. You do the work itself, with support, all the way through.
Once you are trained, we invite you to facilitate storytelling workshops in the community, with different groups throughout the season. This is real, paid work, on top of your fellowship.
• There will be at least three of these community workshops, and up to nine, across the season.
• Each one runs one to three days. You are paid as a facilitator, at a flat daily rate, for every day you lead.
• This is a real responsibility and real income. You are holding space for other people’s stories, and we prepare you fully before you ever lead one.
Before you lead a workshop: Some of the groups we work with include young people or people in vulnerable circumstances. Where a setting requires background checks, we arrange them and we pay for them. You are never the only facilitator in the room, and someone from Experience Museo is there with you.
This is why this fellowship is for adults. It asks a lot of you, and it trusts you with a lot. In return, you leave with a craft, a facilitation practice, paid experience, and the start of a real career.
The craft is part of it. The rest is about you and about what story is really for. All season, online and in person at Museo, we sit with real questions. They come in two kinds.
About you
• What storytelling has meant, means, and will mean in your life
• What it means to be an artist
• How you find a story and make it your own
The power of story
• Healing through the arts and the field it belongs to: arts in health
• Memory and loss, and what a story holds when other things slip away
• Community, belonging, and helping others find where you fit
Under all of it, one thread: belonging. You explore it in your own work, and then you help others explore it in theirs.
You work closely with Horten Barrios-Gómez, our Chief Storyteller. She has spent years using digital storytelling to explore language, migration, and belonging. She trains you, mentors you, and works beside you all season. Together, you hold the memory of the season.
The season is split between online and in-person work. Here is the shape of it.
• The digital storytelling workshop, where you make your own story: either six weeks online, or a three-day in-person intensive
• Facilitator training, where you learn to lead the process for others: either ten weeks online, or a one-week in-person intensive
• A three-day workshop with our music fellows and artists in residence, where you begin helping the fellows make their stories, and facilitate for the first time, with support
• You are present throughout the season and you document it: rehearsals, the three salon concerts, gatherings, and Echoes of Memory: A Festival of Voices on May 1, 2027, which is how the season is remembered, and it is your work to hold
The digital stories you make are yours. They belong to you to keep and to share.
The stories made by the people you facilitate belong to them. When you help someone tell their story, that story stays theirs. It does not become yours, and it does not become ours. Holding that line with care is part of what it means to be a good facilitator, and we take it seriously.
Part of this fellowship is telling the story of the fellowship itself. Across the season we will ask you to document your own journey and share it on your social media. What you are learning, what you are making, and what it feels like to grow into this work.
Plenty of artists work this way now. They build an audience by showing the work as it is being made. It grows your own presence as an artist and facilitator, and it helps others see what this work can be. We help you do it well, and you always choose what to share.
We want you to apply as yourself, so here is exactly what matters to us: voice, openness, and care.
Your voice and a story that lands: We are listening for a real voice and a feel for what makes a story matter. You do not need editing experience. We will teach you the craft.
Your openness: When we ask you to listen and tell us what you feel, we want the honest thing that arises first. There is no wrong response.
How you hold space for others: This is the heart of it. This fellowship is about helping other people tell their stories, so we care most about whether you can make someone feel safe, draw them out, and put them before yourself. If you have ever done that for anyone, tell us.
Your readiness for real responsibility: You will lead workshops with people in the community, so we look for care, steadiness, and a genuine sense of why this work matters. We prepare you fully, and we choose someone we can trust to hold a room with heart.
You are not competing to be the most impressive. We are looking for one person who can tell a true story and help others tell theirs.
This season sits with memory and loss, and the stories you help others tell may go to difficult places. We prepare you for that, and you always have support behind you.
This is creative work and reflection. We in no way intend to replace or provide therapy. When you facilitate, you hold space and help people tell their stories. You are not their counselor. If anything heavier surfaces, our job is to help a person find the right support, never to be that support ourselves.
We document and study some of the season’s work for future analysis. Taking part in that is separate from the fellowship, it is optional, and we will ask you in writing.
We want to see your work, and we want to know how you think. That is it.
The form takes about thirty minutes. Here is what it asks, so nothing catches you off guard.
• The basics: Your name, age, email, phone number, and the part of Houston you live in. You must be eighteen or older for this one, because the fellowship involves leading workshops.
• Your work: What form your storytelling takes (film, video, writing, spoken word, photography, audio, or something else), one or two samples, and a short bio. Paste samples as links, and check they work for someone who is not you.
• Two things to tell us: We ask you to tell a story of a moment of change and what a piece of music made you feel. Written, or a video or audio link. Give us the first response that arises.
• About your craft: Do you consider yourself a writer? Any experience with photo or video editing? No experience is required. We ask only so we know where you are starting.
• About helping others: A moment you helped someone, what makes someone feel safe to share, and why helping others tell their stories interests you.
• A few quick questions: How you heard about us, anything else you want us to know, and an honest note on whether you used AI and how (tools that only tidy your own words do not need to be listed).
Applications close September 7, 2026, at 12 pm CDT.
We choose one digital storytelling fellow this season in three steps. Each one is a chance for us to know you, and for you to know us.
Step 1. Your application: From everyone who applies, we shortlist four.
Step 2. The concert: The four shortlisted applicants come to our opening concert on September 12, as our guests. You meet us, you see the season begin, and we begin to know one another.
Step 3. A conversation: The four sit down with our Chief Storyteller for an interview, and from those conversations, we choose one digital storytelling fellow for the season. The other three join our roster, and we invite them to take part in some of our work.
Experience Museo along with a small panel choose the fellow: Horten Barrios-Gómez, our Chief Storyteller, one of our artists in residence, and a third panelist. We name them when the season opens.
• Applications open August 16, 2026
• Applications close September 7, 2026, at 12 pm CDT
• Shortlist notified shortly after applications close
• Interviews held September 14–15, 2026
• Opening concert, which the shortlist applicants attend as our guests, September 12, 2026
• Fellow announced at the end of September 2026
• Fellow begin working with mentor in October 2026
• The season closes with Echoes of Memory: A Festival of Voices, May 1, 2027
Questions? Write to us at info@experiencemuseo.com.
Where art, innovation, and healing converge to create a new kind of medical experience.
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