Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities Oxford building news, Hopkins Architects English architecture design
2 February 2026
Architecture: Hopkins Architects
Location: Oxford, England, UK
Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre For The Humanities Opens Its Doors To The Public With Major Celebration
Photos © Hufton+Crow
Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities Oxford
· Unveil of new digital art by Refik Anadol and Anna Ridler
· World premiere of new work by Es Devlin and Nico Muhly in the Great Hall
· New 500-seat concert hall opens with concert by the Scottish Ensemble
· New 250-seat theatre opens with dance by ZooNation
The Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre, a new world-class centre for the Arts and Humanities in Oxford, launches its public programme on 25 April 2026 with a free day of events and performances. The new cultural centre provides a unique mix of exceptional performance and research spaces alongside academic teaching facilities.
The opening programme 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, to be performed beneath the glass dome of the Great Hall. Artists Anna Ridler and Refik Anadol each present digital works that have been created using AI. Additional performances include ZooNation’s The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party in the new theatre, along with a line-up of artists including ground breaking Head over Wheels and physical theatre company Justice in Motion.
The Schwarzman Centre’s cultural programme, directed by John Fulljames, will offer fresh new experiences for audiences drawing on the research and teaching excellence of the University of Oxford, and placing experimentation and co-creation at its heart. Central to the programme are the Schwarzman Centre Cultural Fellows, a group of outstanding artists from around the world who are collaborating with Oxford’s leading academics to create pioneering new work.
The initial cohort of Schwarzman Centre Cultural Fellows are: Refik Anadol; Lil Buck; Anna Clyne; Bryce Dessner; Rhiannon Giddens; Sarah Jones; Taylor Mac; Sir Wayne McGregor; Suzan-Lori Parks; Anoushka Shankar; Kae Tempest; Nitin Sawhney; and Bloomberg-Oxford Fellows, Es Devlin, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Marshmallow Laser Feast.
The Schwarzman Centre’s new collaboration with Bloomberg Connects, which supports the sharing of new and historical perspectives from the cultural programme’s renowned artists, writers, and thinkers, will enable visitors to access exclusive content via the Connects app to add to their experience.
The public performance spaces include: the 500-seat Sohmen Concert Hall, complete with state-of-the-art flexible acoustics it is the world’s first Passivhaus concert hall; a 250-seat theatre; 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 renowned Bate Collection of historic musical instruments; a café and bar, all set in landscaped gardens.
The state-of-the-art spaces co-locates seven of Oxford University’s internationally recognised 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 Centre will also house the Institute for Ethics in AI, created in 2019 as part of the announcement of the Centre, the Oxford Internet Institute and the new Bodleian Humanities Library.
John Fulljames, Director of the Cultural Programme, The Schwarzman Centre, University of Oxford, said: “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.”
Alexandra Vincent MBE, Managing Director, The Schwarzman Centre, University of Oxford, said: “We are thrilled to unveil this unique and exciting programme, developed by leading artists and performers working with Oxford research and researchers, for the opening of the Schwarzman Centre. We look forward to welcoming audiences of all ages and backgrounds to the Centre for the April opening celebration and beyond.”
The Schwarzman Centre’s inaugural 2026 programme presents two major focus themed seasons: Unfinished Revolutions (May to June) explores the legacy of the 1776 US Declaration of Independence, featuring Cecile McLorin Salvant, Taylor Mac, Anna Clyne and American street dance superstar Lil Buck. Utopia Now! (October – November) invites audiences to be inspired by Utopian thinking and imagines bold futures with highlights including a new commission by Nitin Sawhney and a History of Utopia, led by Brian Eno and Kim Stanley Robinson.
Other keynote performances 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 the Colin Currie Group. Sigur Rós will collaborate with spatial sound specialists Instruments of Time and Truth.
The Schwarzman Centre has been designed by leading British architects, Hopkins Architects, and developed by the University of Oxford with the support of the largest single gift in modern times made to the University from philanthropist and businessman Stephen A. Schwarzman.
www.schwarzmancentre.ox.ac.uk
Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities Listings
LISTINGS INFORMATION: OPEN HOUSE LAUNCH 25 APRIL 2026
Es Devlin and Nico Muhly with Schola Cantorum: 360 Vessels
25 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
25 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
25 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
25 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
25 April – 24 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
25 April – 25 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, UK
Hopkins Architects
schwarzmancentre.ox.ac.uk
Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities Oxford, England images / information received 02022026
Location: Oxford, OX2 6AH, England, UK
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