Notre Dame plans inaugural Arts Biennial for spring 2027
The inaugural Notre Dame Arts Biennial will debut in spring 2027, running from January to June. Events will take place across campus and the South Bend area, as well as at select locations within Notre Dame’s global network.
The theme of the inaugural festival is symbiosis, inviting audiences and participants to contemplate cooperation and interdependence by studying, practicing, and experiencing the arts. The goals of the festival reflect its debut theme: to energize and activate the arts on campus, strengthen community partnerships, and cultivate global connections through cultural exchange.
Collaboration is an essential part of the festival, which will create new opportunities to partner with Notre Dame through residencies, courses, symposia, commissions, and exhibitions. “Following Fr. Robert Dowd’s call to be bridge builders, we are focused on community partnerships,” said Michael Schreffler, director of the Notre Dame Arts Initiative. “The Biennial is the centerpiece of our efforts in that area.”
The Arts Initiative is a key priority of the University’s strategic framework. It spearheads interdisciplinary research and teaching in the arts and will create compelling new programs that provide intellectually rich arts experiences to the Notre Dame community and beyond. The Biennial is a signature component of the initiative, and all exhibits and events associated with the biennial will be open to the public.
Audiences can expect anchor programming that includes an exhibition at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, performances at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, and events convened by the School of Architecture and the College of Arts & Letters. Notre Dame students will play a key role in the planning and implementation of festival programming, gaining curatorial and arts administrative skills through experiential learning.
“We are also eager to co-plan additional biennial programming that emerges from colleagues on and off-campus and that elaborates different dimensions of the festival’s theme,” Schreffler said. “This might include things like developing special courses, planning student performances or exhibitions, or hosting guest artists and scholars-in-residence. We’re also motivated by the role the arts play across disciplines and are eager to collaborate with non-arts partners.”
To learn more about participating in the 2027 Notre Dame Arts Biennial, contact Rebecca Struch, Arts Initiative managing director.
To stay up to date with the Arts Initiative, sign up for the mailing list.

Originally published by strategicframework.nd.edu on March 24, 2025.
atLatest Research
- University of Notre Dame and IBM Research build tools for AI governanceMain Building (Photo by Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame) …
- Smarter tools for policymakers: Notre Dame researchers target urban carbon emissions, building by buildingCarbon emissions continue to increase at record levels, fueling climate instability and worsening air quality conditions for billions in cities worldwide. Yet despite global commitments to carbon neutrality, urban policymakers still struggle to implement effective mitigation strategies at the city scale. Now, researchers at Notre Dame’s School of Architecture, the College of Engineering and the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society are working to reduce carbon emissions through advanced simulations and a novel artificial intelligence-driven tool, EcoSphere.
- Seven engineering faculty named collegiate professorsSeven faculty members in the Notre Dame College of Engineering have been named collegiate professors—a prestigious title awarded by the university and college in recognition of excellence in research, teaching and service. The designation may be conferred on faculty at the assistant, associate or…
- ‘A special challenge’: German studies scholar wins National Humanities Center fellowship for research on medieval womenFor CJ Jones, the joy of research is not the answers but the journey. And the next step on that journey is a fellowship with the National Humanities Center. …
- Notre Dame Lead Innovation Team partners with local WIC program to identify, prevent lead poisoning in childrenB.A.B.E. store “shoppers” now have something new to help their families: free lead screening kits offered by the University of Notre Dame’s Lead Innovation Team.
- Notre Dame Welcomes Ninth Cohort of Warrior-Scholars for Transformative Academic JourneyNOTRE DAME, IN – The University of Notre Dame recently concluded its ninth successful Warrior-Scholar Project (WSP) boot camp, hosting 34 dedicated Warrior-Scholars from June 21st to 28th. This intensive, week-long academic residency provided transitioning service members and veterans…