Schwarzman Center for the Humanities Opens in April

Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre, a world-class center for the arts and humanities, opens in Oxford, England, and launches its public program April 25. Opening day will see a free day of events and performances; consider adding a visit to the new center, offering a mix of performance and research spaces and academic teaching facilities, to upcoming family travel.

“We can’t wait to welcome people from across the region into this new public home for the humanities. It’s a place where we can all come together to make sense of what it means to be human in today’s world,” said John Fulljames, director of the Cultural Programme, The Schwarzman Centre. “With a free opening celebration including music, theatre, dance, cabaret, spectacle and more – we can promise a chance to connect with both some much loved stories and artists as well as encounter something new and surprising.”

The opening program includes the launch of the new 500-seat Sohmen Concert Hall, with performances by the Scottish Ensemble. Audiences can see the world premiere of 360 Vessels by artist Es Devlin and composer Nico Muhly with chamber choir Schola Cantorum, performed beneath the glass dome of the Great Hall. Artists Anna Ridler and Refik Anadol each present digital works created using AI. Additional performances include ZooNation’s The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party in the new theater, along with a line-up of artists including groundbreaking Head over Wheels and physical theater company Justice in Motion.

The Schwarzman Centre’s new collaboration with Bloomberg Connects supports the sharing of new and historical perspectives from the program’s artists, writers and thinkers, enabling visitors to access exclusive content via the Connects app. Public performance spaces include the 500-seat Sohmen Concert Hall, with state-of-the-art flexible acoustics and the world’s first Passivhaus concert hall; a 250-seat theater; a black box immersive performance space and a white box exhibition gallery; a dance studio; cinema; the Great Hall; a museum for the display of the Bate Collection of historic musical instruments; a café and bar; and landscaped gardens.

The spaces also co-locate seven of Oxford University’s Humanities faculties for the first time: Music, English Language and Literature, History, Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics, Medieval and Modern Languages, Philosophy, and Theology and Religion. The center will also house Institute for Ethics in AI, Oxford Internet Institute and new Bodleian Humanities Library.

The inaugural 2026 season presents two major focuses: Unfinished Revolutions (May to June) explores the legacy of the 1776 U.S. Declaration of Independence, featuring Cecile McLorin Salvant, Taylor Mac, Anna Clyne and American street dance superstar Lil Buck; and Utopia Now! (October–November) invites audiences to be inspired by Utopian thinking with highlights including a new commission by Nitin Sawhney and History of Utopia, led by Brian Eno and Kim Stanley Robinson.

Other highlights throughout the year include an evening with Kae Tempest; a new staging of Karel Capek’s R.U.R. by Headlong Theatre; a day-long exploration of the psalms curated by Edmund de Waal, in collaboration with Oxford scholars, the Aurora Orchestra and Colin Currie Group; Sigur Rós with spatial sound specialists Loss><Gain; the Leys Festival; dance company Body Politic; Oxford International Song Festival; and early music specialists Instruments of Time and Truth.