BERLIN.- As the art season opens again after the summer break, Berlin Art Week returns from September 9–13, 2026, marking its milestone 15th anniversary edition. This year’s festival offers an opportunity to reflect on the past, present and future of contemporary art and life in the German capital—one of Europe’s leading artistic hubs, where histories, ideas and artistic trajectories continue to intersect.
Since its inception, Berlin Art Week has evolved hand-in-hand with Berlin’s transformation into an international capital for contemporary art. Organised by Kulturprojekte Berlin, and under the artistic direction of Mona Stehle, the festival continues to bring together the city's diverse artistic communities while maintaining the independent spirit that has long defined Berlin as a place of artistic production and exchange. Berlin Art Week is one of the first, largest and most ambitious art weeks in Europe.
While the full programme will be announced later this summer, visitors can already look forward to more than 100 partners presenting over 300 events across Berlin. Unfolding over five days, Berlin Art Week brings together artists, institutions, galleries, project spaces and private collections through newly opened exhibitions, performances, screenings, talks and special events.
Across the city, established artists and emerging voices will present new works, many on view for the first time. Major institutions will launch significant exhibitions to be seen for the first time that week, while Berlin’s dynamic gallery scene takes centre stage through Gallery Night and Positions Berlin Art Fair. As part of Open Houses, some of the capital’s most renowned private collections will offer rare insights into their holdings, including spaces that are otherwise usually closed to the public. Featured Projects will showcase specially curated programmes by independent artist-run venues, project spaces and initiatives, activating often lesser-known sites across Berlin, such as churches, warehouses and underground spaces.
A special festival centre, Berlin Art Week Garden, located in a different part of the city each year, will host a free open-air programme of talks, international symposia, DJ sets and special events. Its location will be revealed later this summer.
For its 15th anniversary edition, Berlin Art Week highlights the interconnected ecosystem that has helped shape Berlin into one of Europe’s leading centres for contemporary art. Over the past decades, the city has undergone profound social, political and economic transformations, yet it is often in moments of uncertainty that Berlin has generated some of its most vital artistic responses. The anniversary looks to this capacity for reinvention, highlighting the communities, networks and collaborations that continue to shape Berlin’s cultural landscape, continuing to attract artists, institutions, galleries, collectors and cultural practitioners from around the world. In this spirit, Berlin Art Week 2026 considers how art can create spaces for encounter, public discourse and shared experience, while making visible the collaborative practices that sustain artistic production across the city.
Berlin Art Week is a project of Kulturprojekte Berlin. It is made possible with the support of the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises, and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Senate Department for Culture and Social Community. It is realized with funding from Berliner Volksbank eG.
