The Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre, Oxford’s new landmark for the Arts and Humanities, opens its doors to the public on 25th April 2026 with a free, day-long programme of performances, installations and events. Designed as a meeting point between artistic experimentation and academic research, the Centre brings together world-class performance spaces, teaching facilities and cultural programming under one roof.
The launch marks the debut of the 500-seat Sohmen Concert Hall, the world’s first Passivhaus concert hall, alongside a new theatre, immersive performance spaces, exhibition galleries and the Great Hall. Opening day highlights include performances by the Scottish Ensemble, ZooNation’s high-energy The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, and a major new commission, 360 Vessels, by Es Devlin and Nico Muhly, performed beneath the Great Hall’s glass dome with Schola Cantorum.
Digital and AI-led practices also feature prominently. Refik Anadol presents Archive Dreaming, an immersive installation transforming vast datasets into flowing, dreamlike environments, while Anna Ridler unveils a new screen-based work responding to scientific research at Oxford, continuing her long-term investigation into artificial intelligence, knowledge and image-making.
The Schwarzman Centre’s cultural programme, directed by John Fulljames, is rooted in collaboration, co-creation and research-led experimentation. Central to this vision is the Schwarzman Centre Cultural Fellows programme, which brings together leading artists and thinkers working directly with Oxford academics. The inaugural cohort includes Refik Anadol, Lil Buck, Bryce Dessner, Rhiannon Giddens, Kae Tempest, Nitin Sawhney, Sir Wayne McGregor, alongside Bloomberg–Oxford Fellows Es Devlin, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Marshmallow Laser Feast.
“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. 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.”
John Fulljames, Director of the Cultural Programme, The Schwarzman Centre, University of Oxford,
Beyond opening weekend, the 2026 programme unfolds across two major themed seasons. Unfinished Revolutions (May–June) reflects on the legacy of the 1776 US Declaration of Independence, while Utopia Now! (October–November) looks toward alternative futures, with contributions from figures including Brian Eno and Kim Stanley Robinson. Additional highlights throughout the year range from Sigur Rós’s immersive spatial sound project to a psalms-focused day curated by Edmund de Waal.
Designed by Hopkins Architects and supported by a landmark gift from philanthropist Stephen A. Schwarzman, the Centre also reunites seven of Oxford University’s humanities faculties for the first time, alongside the Bodleian Humanities Library and the Institute for Ethics in AI.
At its core, the Schwarzman Centre positions the humanities as a living, public-facing practice — one that invites audiences to gather, question and imagine what it means to be human today.
LISTINGS INFORMATION: OPEN HOUSE LAUNCH 25 APRIL 2026
Es Devlin and Nico Muhly with Schola Cantorum: 360 Vessels 25th April 2026, 8.30pm Great Hall
Artist Es Devlin, who is a Bloomberg-Oxford Fellow, and composer Nico Muhly join forces for 360 Vessels, a new choral installation created for the Schwarzman Centre’s launch weekend.
Beneath the Great Hall’s glass dome, 360 hand-made clay vessels will form a circular landscape amidst the audience as Schola Cantorum, the Oxford University Chamber Choir, conducted by Stephen Grahl, perform a specially commissioned choral work by American composer Nico Muhly. The texts within Muhly’s choral work are drawn from the Dominican roots on which the study of humanities at Oxford University is founded, as well as the words of Thomas Traherne, 17th century theologian and poet who graduated from Brasenose College in April 1652. In the lead up to the event, the vessels will be shaped in a series of workshops developed by Es Devlin in collaboration with the Institute for Ethics in AI as part of her Bloomberg-Oxford Fellowship.
Scottish Ensemble: Rising Sound 25th April 2026: 1pm, 3pm, 5pm Sohmen Concert Hall Free, ticket required The Scottish Ensemble perform music for strings from memory, including an excerpt from Tchaikovsky’s much-loved Serenade for Strings. Choreographed by Örjan Andersson the musicians create a striking visual representation of the music’s patterns and intricacies. From moments of despair to euphoria, this music embraces the full spectrum of human emotions.
Scottish Ensemble: Impulse, Music in Motion 25th April 2026 Sohmen Concert Hall Free, ticket required The Scottish Ensemble perform music for strings from memory, Tchaikovsky’s much loved Serenade for Strings and Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony, in a unique, personal, and deeply human performance.
Playing from memory, the musicians are unleashed through choreographed movements, devised in collaboration with choreographer Örjan Andersson. The emotional power of the music and the expressive gestures of the musicians will create an exhilarating experience that will make you see and hear these two iconic works afresh.
ZooNation: The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party 25th April 2026: 12pm, 2pm, 4pm 6pm Theatre Free, ticket required Step into the enchanting world of ZooNation’s The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, a high-energy, 20-minute adaptation of the acclaimed production. Highlights of its original, hip-hop inspired numbers include “Wonderland”, “M.A.D”, “Hatter’s House” and “Funk It Up”. This vibrant remix of Alice in Wonderland reimagines Lewis Carroll’s classic with the Queen of Hearts battling anger issues, Alice navigating her ever-changing size, and the Mad Hatter lost in an endless tea-time frenzy.
Created by ZooNation’s Founder and Artistic Director, Kate Prince, this family-friendly showcase celebrates individuality through electrifying choreography and original music by Josh Cohen and DJ Walde.
Refik Anadol: Archive Dreaming 25th April – 24th May 2026 Open daily White Box Archive Dreaming is an immersive fusion of data and machine intelligence. This installation transforms a vast digital archive into a dynamic, dream-like experience, using AI algorithms to reimagine millions of documents in real time. As viewers enter the space, they are surrounded by a flow of visuals, constantly shifting patterns, text, and images that evoke the sensation of walking through a living, thinking mind.
The work uses Refik Anadol Studio’s Large Nature Model, the first generative AI model dedicated entirely to nature, and reflects on how archives are no longer static repositories, but living entities that can be explored and visualised through technology. Anadol’s use of machine learning turns raw data into a poetic experience, challenging the boundaries between human memory and artificial intelligence.
Anna Ridler: A Perfect Language of Images 25th April – 25th May 2026 Open daily Great Hall
For nearly a decade, Anna Ridler has explored the creative and societal possibilities of artificial intelligence, building her own datasets to ask questions about how knowledge is made and shared. An Oxford University alumna, her work has been shown at major institutions worldwide, from the V&A to the Centre Pompidou, and she has been recognised by Ars Electronica and by Artnet as one of nine “pioneering artists” exploring AI’s creative potential. For her latest commission, Ridler draws on cutting-edge scientific research happening at Oxford to create a new screen-based work for the Great Hall, continuing her exploration of natural history, science, and society.
Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, University of Oxford, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Oxford OX2 6AH schwarzmancentre.ox.ac.uk
