Black Art Summer School 
2026: Open Call

• 
  
• 
  
• Black Art Summer School is a five-day dialogic, performative, and pedagogical program rooted in the imaginative and self-determined artistic, pedagogical, and knowledge practices of the Black Diaspora in Europe and the United States. The program brings together Black artists, educators, thinkers, and cultural workers to cultivate artistic dialogue, foster collective (un)learning, and exchange transformative methodologies.
• 
  Black Art Summer School honors the friendships, histories, questions, and networks that carry the energy, spirit, and politics of Black Arts movements across the world. Drawing inspiration from transnational formations—such as the Black Arts Movement (US), The Crystal Working Group (Sudan), Walkaman (Suriname/Netherlands), and the BLK Art Group (UK)—the program turns its attention to the historical practices, artistic references, and evolving horizons that shape Black art across differences of geography, language, and experience.
  
• 
  
• Building on these foundations, each year the Black Art Summer School responds to the questions and urgencies of the present. What are we, as artists and thinkers, called to do at this moment? What must we explore, build, challenge, or create in the times through which we are moving? For 2026, we offer Plotting as our shared proposition—a method of thinking, imagining, and preparing together for the futures that await us. How might we plan in the shadows, prepare in the wilderness, sharpen our creative machetes, and share ideas over hidden fires? What wayfinders shall we make in anticipation of times to come?
• 
  The program embraces a fluid and transformative structure, taking shape through cyphers, performances, discussions, night school, listening sessions, sonic lectures, artistic walks, and other forms of collective study. We aim to create a horizontal space that honors the legacy of anti-colonial thinkers, cultural workers, and artistic communities who have paved the way for radical pedagogies and creative experimentation. At the same time, we offer strategies and support for navigating both the urgencies of everyday life and the expansive possibilities of future artistic practice.
• 
  We invite you to join us for the 2026 edition of Black Art Summer School—an opportunity to study, imagine, and plot new worlds together in community. Practical information about applying can be found HERE.

• The deadline to submit your application is January 23rd.