introducing Paul Coffey

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston names new leader of its prestigious art school

Paul Coffey takes over at Glassell in July.

Photo by Cosmo Coffey

The nation’s only museum-affiliated art school serving pre-K through post-graduate students now has a new leader. Paul Coffey, a long-tenured leader at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, is the new director of the Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Coffey takes over for beloved Glassell director Joseph Havel, who steps down after a 30-year run. The new director begins on July 18, per an MFAH announcement.

“Paul Coffey brings to the Glassell School of Art and to Houston an extraordinary commitment to art, education and community,” said MFAH director Gary Tinterow in a statement, “one that he has demonstrated over two decades in leadership roles at the renowned School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I know that he will bring thoughtful leadership to the Glassell School, which is so essential to the Museum’s educational and artistic mission and which, under Joe Havel’s direction, became a center of creativity.”

Most recently, Coffey served as vice provost and dean of community engagement at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for the past 11 years.

There, he is credited for spearheading a series of innovative community-focused programs. These include: SAIC at Homan Square, the School’s campus in the underserved Chicago neighborhood of North Lawndale, offering free art and design programming for residents of all ages, degree courses for SAIC students and an artist-in-residence program.

Other work includes summer intensives for military veterans with PTSD, in collaboration with CreatiVets; and the College Arts Access Program in Continuing Studies, a free, three-year college-bridge program for Chicago Public Schools students with artistic talent and financial need.

Academically, Coffey also oversaw the planning and implementation of new programs at SAIC, including the Low Residency MFA, Master of Architecture, Master of Arts in Visual and Critical Studies, Master of Design in Designed Objects, Bachelor of Arts in Visual Critical Studies, BA with emphasis in Writing and BA with emphasis in Art History, Theory and Criticism, per his bio.
He received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1989; an MFA in art and design from the University of Chicago in 1992; and completed the Institute for Management and Leadership in Education at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, in 2018, per a release.

A longtime Chicagoan, Coffey tells the Houston Chronicle’s Andrew Dansby that he was inspired by Houston and the MFAH long before he took up employment here. “Having studied art all my life, being an art student since I was a teenager, I learned about the Menil Collection, the Rothko Chapel,” he says. “I’ve studied paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.”

education museums

paint the town

Houston chosen for first-ever expansion of prestigious art fair

Courtesy of World Red Eye

Untitled Art is a contemporary art fair that takes place annually in Miami Beach.

One of the country’s leading contemporary art fairs has chosen Houston for its first-ever expansion. Untitled Art, will take place from September 19-21, 2025 at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

Founded in Miami 12 years ago by collector and entrepreneur Jeffrey Lawson, Untitled Art showcases the work of emerging and established artists. Known for its cutting-edge programming featuring noteworthy galleries and nonprofits from around the world, each fair features a series of curated galleries designed to offer a narrative flow for viewers.

“We’ve been in Houston now for the last two years, having conversations with all the different institutions, collectors, and art advisors to put this together,” Lawson tells CultureMap. “Texas – and Houston specifically with its vast resources, great cultural wealth and standing as a gateway to Latin America – offers myriad opportunities to a growing brand like Untitled Art.”

Lawson sees the Bayou City as a natural place to expand. In 2022, the city saw $1.3 billion in arts-related spending. And Lawson points out that the city’s increased emphasis on the arts, along with expansions at the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art and the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, among others, demonstrate a commitment to arts and arts programming.

“It's just a really excellent place that's growing pretty rapidly in a really positive way,” Lawson says of the city.

Untitled Art Fair Director Michael Slenske echoed those sentiments.

“Over the past decade and a half, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Houston’s art landscape evolve firsthand, and there’s seemingly no limit to the potential of the city’s cultural infrastructure,” he says.

Untitled Art aims to engage new audiences across the city, state, and region. It will also add yet another cultural touchstone to one of the country’s largest, most diverse, and fastest growing cities.

While plans for the art fair are still being put in place, attendees can expect several things. First, they’ll see art from hundreds of artists and exhibitors. (This year’s annual Untitled Art in Miami, slated for December 4 through 8, features more than 170 exhibitors.) Those works showcase several media, including painting, sculpture, mixed media, even performance or video. All of the artists are working in contemporary arts.

Exhibitors will be a blend of local artists and participants from Untitled Art’s extensive network of galleries across the U.S. and beyond. Some of the participants confirmed for Houston’s inaugural edition include Seven Sisters from Houston; 12.26 from Dallas; Martha's from Austin; Various Small Fires/VSF with locations in Los Angeles, Seoul, and Dallas; Half Gallery of New York and Los Angeles; and Luis De Jesus Los Angeles. A full list of exhibitors will be announced in the spring. Lawson, Slenske, and Untitled Art executive director Clara Andrade will select all of the participating artists.

In addition to being able to go through each participant’s gallery, fair attendees can take part in curator-led tours or watch Untitled Art’s podcast being recorded. Leading up to the fair, Untitled Art will host a series of activities and installations around the city and state designed to show how art can be accessible to all. What those activities will be is still in the works.

Lawson stresses that Untitled Art is for everyone, from collectors to the curious.

“The bulk of the people that come to the fair are not buying art. They're coming to see great art from all over the world,” he says. “They're coming to participate in a cultural event. That's exciting. They're coming to look at what artists are making and what people are doing.”

The announcement of Untitled Art’s expansion to Houston comes in the wake of several significant expansions across Houston galleries and institutions in recent years, and on the heels of the Houston arts community being honored as the first Spotlight city at the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) annual Art Show in New York in late October.

Local partners in the 2025 Houston fair include Discovery Green, Buffalo Bayou Partnership, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH), the University of Houston School of Art, and the historic art-focused hotel, La Colombe D’Or.

Courtesy of World Red Eye

Untitled Art is a contemporary art fair that takes place annually in Miami Beach.