Programs

The Heller Center aims to inspire and promote new works by offering fellowships to scholars and artists from across the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Fellows are provided with one and two week stays in the picturesque and historic Heller Center guest house. They receive a stipend and travel funding.

Fellows are provided access to UCCS facilities and to the expertise of the UCCS faculty in the pursuit of their specific projects. Each fellow is asked to present their work in a public format such as a lecture, performance, or exhibit during their stay. Heller fellows are selected annually by the Heller Faculty Board.

Click here to access Fellowship Application 

What is a Salon?

Dating back to the literary and philosophical movements of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France, a salon is “a fashionable assemblage of notables (such as literary figures, artists, or statesmen) held by custom at the home of a prominent person.”

At the Heller Center, junior faculty present their research to the campus and wider Colorado Springs community. The audience may choose – or not - to read a pre-posted selection of the professor’s writing before the event. After a brief lecture, the floor opens for questions and conversation – all with wine and cheese.

Create a reading cluster and share books, conversation, insights, and snacks.  All while enjoying the beauty of the Heller Center. 

Each year, the Heller Center offers opportunities for UCCS faculty of all levels to focus on their research and develop their writing practice. These intensives take different forms from weekly free-writing sessions to guided multi-week workshops.

In collaboration with the UCCS Office of Research, the Heller Center for the Arts and Humanities funds an annual Heller Resident Scholar or Artist. Awardees will receive two course offloads over a single semester to dedicate themselves entirely to research or creative goals. This residency is part of Heller’s effort to support and advance the contributions of UCCS faculty to the Humanities writ large.

The UCCS Humanities program is proud to inaugurate the Solertia Humanities Speaker Series, which presents an annual talk by an internationally recognized leader in the humanities. In our rapidly changing and often fragmented world, a cultivated appreciation of our collective likeness, shared capacities and common aspirations can lead us to understand and savor the rich depth of human diversity and experience. To the ancient Romans, the concept of humanitas included an education that instilled the virtues of character required to live a fulfilling life: wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance. Solertia is underwritten by the UCCS Humanities Program, the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences Dean’s Office, and the Heller Center for Arts & Humanities.