Cover Photo: Featured left to right: Sutton Foster, Christian McBride & Ursa Major, HopeBoykinDance, and Parched by Official Puppet Business

The Duke Arts Presents 2026–27 season invites audiences to reflect on “Our Common Home” through artistic journeys that explore our world across cultures, histories, and the natural world.

Bringing together visionary artists from around the globe, the season spans disciplines from dance and music to comedy and immersive visual art installations, showcasing ambitious new works throughout. With Our Common Home as a guiding inspiration, this season engages audiences in conversations about democracy and national identity, climate resilience and environmental change, migration, cultural inheritance, and the enduring human search for connection.

“Artists help us imagine new ways of understanding one another and the world we share,” said Deborah Rutter, Vice Provost for the Arts at Duke University.

“This season brings together extraordinary artists whose work holds a mirror to the world around us, deepening empathy and understanding while envisioning new futures.”

Deborah Rutter, Vice Provost for the Arts at Duke University

Highlights of the season include performances by comedian Mo Amer; Broadway star Sutton Foster; Tony Award-winner Renée Elise Goldsberry in a special holiday concert; jazz bassist Christian McBride with Ursa Major, a high-energy quartet of rising jazz musicians; new dance works by Matthew Rushing and Hope Boykin; and internationally celebrated classical artists including VOCES8, Tenebrae, and Jeremy Denk. These performances join previously announced programs, including Duke Arts at American Tobacco, a free outdoor series curated this year by North Carolina musician Tift Merritt celebrating women singer-songwriters, and the 81st season of the Chamber Arts Series, continuing a long tradition of world-class chamber music at Duke. Chamber Arts Series subscriptions for all eight concerts are available now.

The season is anchored in part by We the People, a Duke and Durham initiative exploring the nation’s past, present, and future as the United States marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Extraordinary Durham voices and national collaborators resonate throughout the season, beginning with shirlette ammons’ 10^th anniversary celebration of her genre-defying album Language Barrier featuring Lizz Wright, Phil Cook, and more, and culminating in choreographer Hope Boykin’s tribute to fellow Durham native Shirley Caesar, created for Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and HopeBoykinDance. Along the way, artists including comedian Mo Amer, performance duo Taylor Mac and Matt Ray, musician and storyteller Gabriel Kahane, pianist Awadagin Pratt, and more explore American identity through movement, music, comedy, and reflection.

Several projects in the season have been commissioned or developed with support from Duke Arts, including Sacred Spaces, Matthew Rushing’s reimagining of spirituals from Alvin Ailey’s original Revelations; Ogemdi Ude’s MAJOR, a dance-theater work inspired by HBCU majorette traditions; Parched, a visually inventive puppet-theater work set in a climate-ravaged future; and Hope Boykin’s Troubled No More, inspired by the music and legacy of gospel icon Shirley Caesar.

“So many of this season’s projects invite audiences into conversations that feel especially urgent right now,” said Aaron Shackelford, Duke Arts Director of Programming.

“Across every genre, these artists approach big questions with imagination, beauty, and humanity.”

Aaron Shackelford, Duke Arts Director of Programming.

Spring programming turns toward humanity’s relationship with the environment through performances and experiences shaped by climate and ecological questions. Highlights include TREES, an ambitious new live documentary experience from filmmaker Sam Green; National Geographic Live with ecologist Lucy Hawkes; and Our Common Home, an interactive public art installation that uses artificial intelligence to illuminate individual impact on the planet—and lends the season its name.

From intimate solo performances to large-scale interdisciplinary collaborations, the 2026–27 season reflects Duke Arts’ commitment to presenting artists who offer transformative live experiences and invite audiences to engage deeply with the world around them. At a moment shaped by rapid technological change, environmental urgency, and profound global interconnection, the season offers an invitation to gather in examination and celebration of Our Common Home.

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Flexible Pick-4 subscription packages for the full season will be available beginning Thursday, June 4 at 11 a.m. Pick-4 package holders save up to 20% on single tickets and access prime locations before the general public. Single tickets will be available at 11 a.m. on June 23, 2026.

Subscriptions are available now for the Chamber Arts Series, starting at $225 for six concerts. Learn about the Chamber Arts Series→

The lineup for the free four-concert 2026 Duke Arts at American Tobacco series will be announced this summer.

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Duke Arts Presents 2026-27 Season Schedule

*Día de Los Muertos Ofrenda, Our Common Home, and both concerts by The Ciompi Quartet are free and not included in the pick-4 subscription series. Tickets will be available for the Ciompi concerts beginning at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, June 23.