Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities

Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities The Schwarzman Centre is a stage set for boundless creativity. Based at the University of Oxford, open to all.

We believe culture is for everyone and are building a programme that allows creativity to flourish. Inspired by Oxford research we’re connecting Oxford with outstanding artists, writers and thinkers from across the world. Many people from across the city and region are already involved as we create new opportunities and new experiences, but if you have an idea or suggestion for a future project or event, we’d love to hear it. The Cultural Programme is part of the Humanities Division at the University of Oxford and works closely with TORCH (The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities) and Knowledge Exchange.

🚪 Discover the Schwarzman Centre as part of Oxford Open Doors Join us tomorrow on Saturday 12 September, 9am–5pm, for a...
11/09/2026

🚪 Discover the Schwarzman Centre as part of Oxford Open Doors

Join us tomorrow on Saturday 12 September, 9am–5pm, for a free day of exploring the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities.

Come inside and experience our new home for the humanities, arts and culture. During your visit you can:

📚 Explore the library and join a tour
🎻 Discover the Bate Collection
🎭 Explore our recital hall, concert hall and theatre
☕ Stop by the café
🎤 Hear Alex Vincent, CEO, share the vision behind the building

Whether you’re curious about the architecture, our collections or our performance spaces, it’s a great opportunity to come in, look around and experience the Centre for yourself.

📍 Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, Oxford

Oxford Preservation Trust University of Oxford

10/09/2026

🎭 Step into a story that takes you across Oxford and through time.

When the Blackbird Sings is an immersive theatre experience following Paulette, a Jamaican-born woman determined to change the world in 1966.

Starting in Blackbird Leys, audiences will travel by bus through Oxford, meeting remarkable pioneers and changemakers along the way before the journey concludes at the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities. ✨

📅 23 September – 11 October 2026

👉 Find out more and book your tickets by clicking the link below.

https://bit.ly/3ThApY3

10/09/2026

What happens when you experience Steve Reich’s music from the inside?

Colin Currie (Colin Currie Group), David Sheppard and John Best (Loss﹥﹤Gain) introduce Phase | Pattern | Pulse — a new way of experiencing the richness, complexity and beauty of Reich’s music, created to celebrate the American composer’s 90th birthday.

Bringing together Colin Currie Group and spatial audio designers Loss﹥﹤Gain, Phase | Pattern | Pulse offers an exploded 360° insider’s view of some of Reich’s most admired compositions.

Across three distinct immersive audio programmes, the experience brings us closer to the inner workings of Reich’s music, revealing the inner structures of each piece in fresh and startling detail. Explore the phasing patterns of Drumming, the vibrating harmonies of Six Marimbas and the mesmeric journey of Music for 18 Musicians from an entirely new perspective: in full 360° immersive audio for the very first time.

Phase | Pattern | Pulse premieres at the Schwarzman Centre’s Black Box on 25 September and runs until 11 October - book now:
https://www.schwarzmancentre.ox.ac.uk/theme/phase-pattern-pulse-q9t1

Colin Currie

Then and now ✨As we enjoy our first summer in the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, we're looking back at the journe...
07/09/2026

Then and now ✨

As we enjoy our first summer in the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, we're looking back at the journey - from a building taking shape to spaces now filled with people, performances, ideas and activity.

From left to right: The Great Hall skylight, the Bodleian Humanities Library, The Great Hall atrium, and the Foyer Bar.

Photos 1, 3, 5, 7 - Hopkins Architects
Photo 2 - Mark Williamson
Photos 4, 6 - David Levene
Photo 8 - Oxford Atelier

University of Oxford
Bodleian Libraries
TORCH - The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities
Hopkins Architects

Coming soon: MegalithRocks. Beats. Stone circles. Copper mining - and more...This autumn, MECHANIMAL’s Megalith comes to...
27/08/2026

Coming soon: Megalith

Rocks. Beats. Stone circles. Copper mining - and more...

This autumn, MECHANIMAL’s Megalith comes to Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Part interactive installation, part live performance, Megalith is a journey through 10,000 years of technology, bringing together deep-time techno, metamorphic soundscapes, Neolithic mining techniques, and projection design by award-winning Limbic Cinema.

Get yer strata on… ⚒️

Immersive experience | 24 October–2 November
Get hands-on: mine stone with antlers like a Neolithic miner, lie back and listen to the slow geological rumble of rocks, and explore a giant stone circle as light moves around you.

🕐 Free event - head to the Welcome Desk when you arrive to discover the day’s timings and book your free session.

Live performances | 30 & 31 October
See MECHANIMAL bring Megalith to life in a fun, loud and lyrical smash-fest.

🎟️ Performances are ticketed — book now via the link in bio.

📍 Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Please note: Megalith takes place at the Museum, not at the Schwarzman Centre.

Megalith is presented by the Schwarzman Centre and MECHANIMAL, in collaboration with the Museum of Natural History.

Mechanimal
Museum of Natural History, University of Oxford

Final week to see Anna Ridler: A Perfect Language of Images in the Great HallWhat happens when we try to organise the wo...
24/08/2026

Final week to see Anna Ridler: A Perfect Language of Images in the Great Hall

What happens when we try to organise the world – and what can't be contained?

Artist and Oxford alumna Anna Ridler explores the creative and societal possibilities of artificial intelligence, building her own datasets to question how knowledge is made and shared.

Created in collaboration with Dr William Poole from Oxford’s Faculty of English, the digital artwork brings together three pieces inspired by the ideas of 17th-century Oxford scholar John Wilkins and writer Jorge Luis Borges.

Connecting centuries-old attempts to classify the world with contemporary machine learning, A Perfect Language of Images explores our desire to create systems that make sense of everything – and the gaps and contradictions they reveal.

📍 Until 31 August, Great Hall, Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities
🎟️ No booking required - drop in.
🔗 Discover more: https://f.mtr.cool/vuczcjopvk

📸 David Levene

Your September plans, sorted. 📆We’re looking forward to a month of unforgettable moments, from live music and dance to n...
20/08/2026

Your September plans, sorted. 📆

We’re looking forward to a month of unforgettable moments, from live music and dance to new theatre and immersive audio experiences – swipe through to explore what’s coming up. 👉

Víkingur Ólafsson: Piano Recital
19:30, 9 September
📍Sohmen Concert Hall [Sold out]
Víkingur Ólafsson

Find your next must-see performance and book now via the link in bio. 🔗



MANWOMAN
19:00, 16 September
📍Theatre

Directed, choreographed, and performed by Vangeline vangeline
Costumes by Machine Dazzle – Machine Dazzle
Photographer Michael Blase – Michael Blase
Photographer Nic Wong – Nic
Composer Ray Sweeten – Ray Sweeten
Lighting Designer Poe Light – Ayumu Poe Saegusa

When the Blackbird Sings
23rd September–11 October
📍Promenade performance beginning in Blackbird Leys

Creation Theatre Leys Blackbird

Burning Down the House
25 September–10 October
📍Theatre



Phase Pattern Pulse
25 September–11 October
📍Black Box

John Best_._.David Sheppard Colin Currie

19/08/2026

From the first performances on our stages to conversations bringing together voices from Oxford and beyond, our opening season was full of unforgettable moments – revisit some of them with us. ✨

Thanks to everyone who joined us. We can't wait to welcome you back soon.

Subscribe to our newsletter to be among the first to see what's coming up, unlock special offers, and more: https://www.schwarzmancentre.ox.ac.uk/newsletter-5tkn

Looking back at our inaugural season: Unfinished Revolutions ✨Across a season of performance and conversation, artists, ...
14/08/2026

Looking back at our inaugural season: Unfinished Revolutions ✨

Across a season of performance and conversation, artists, Oxford researchers and audiences came together to explore freedom, democracy, identity and belonging – and to ask what it means for a revolution to remain unfinished...

Marking 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Unfinished Revolutions invited new perspectives on familiar histories and explored the different ways the past continues to shape the present.

Thank you to everyone who joined us and made our opening chapter one to remember. 💫

🔗 Tap through to explore moments from Unfinished Revolutions and read the full story: https://www.schwarzmancentre.ox.ac.uk/unfinished-revolutions-reflections-on-our-inaugural-cultural-season-ryh7

With eyes turning to the skies this week for the solar eclipse and Perseid meteor shower, it’s a moment to consider our ...
12/08/2026

With eyes turning to the skies this week for the solar eclipse and Perseid meteor shower, it’s a moment to consider our place in the universe – and the planet we share. 🌍🌌

What happens when we zoom out – beyond cities, countries and borders – and see ourselves from a different perspective?

These questions of connection and identity are explored in Orbiting Orbital, coming to the Schwarzman Centre this November. Award-winning composer and musician Nitin Sawhney and Booker Prize-winning author Samantha Harvey join forces for a powerful new multidisciplinary work inspired by Harvey’s acclaimed novel Orbital, bringing together new poetry and music with drawings by Antony Gormley and photography by Mary McCartney.

Moving between the personal and the planetary, Orbiting Orbital explores what it means to live, feel and belong in an interconnected universe.

Nitin Sawhney
Fantasia Orchestra

Nitin Sawhney: Orbiting Orbital
6–7 November, 19:30, Sohmen Concert Hall
🎟️ Book now: https://www.schwarzmancentre.ox.ac.uk/whats-on/nitin-sawhney-orbiting-orbital-ntvf

Image: Antony Gormley

Part of Utopia Now!, our season exploring the role of the arts in making a better future possible.

Address

The Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre For The Humanities Radcliffe Observatory Quarter Woodstock Road
Oxford
OX26GG

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 8pm
Tuesday 8am - 8pm
Wednesday 8am - 8pm
Thursday 8am - 8pm
Friday 8am - 8pm

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