Yale Center for British Art Announces Fall 2025 Public Programs

NEW HAVEN, CT (September 16, 2025) — This fall, the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA) presents a dynamic season of free public programs designed to spark creativity, dialogue, and discovery. Ranging from lunchtime gallery talks to immersive family programs to lively conversations with leading architects, artists, and scholars, the museum welcomes visitors to engage with art and ideas from multiple perspectives. 

By providing opportunities for visitors to engage with original works of art that inspire creative exploration, the museum reaffirms its commitment to fostering a vibrant space for lifelong learning and meaningful connections. The YCBA’s programs are always free and open to the public; most are offered on a drop-in basis, with select workshops requiring advance registration.

This season’s programs feature: an artist talk with the Guyanese British artist Hew Locke and Martina Droth, Paul Mellon Director, YCBA on the occasion of the major exhibition Hew Locke: Passages (October 9); a symposium, featuring artist Stuart Neilson as the keynote speaker, that explores how art museums can be reimagined as public spaces that embrace individuals with a wide range of neuro-abilities (October 23 – 24); and a performance by the Yale Voxtet of music inspired by the poetry of artist William Blake, corresponding with the new exhibition William Blake: Burning Bright (November 20). 

The season also marks the debut of Spanish-language family programs and tours at the museum, expanding access and welcoming new audiences! 

See below for our exciting programs at the YCBA. For the most up-to-date information, visit britishart.yale.edu. 

Exhibition Programs

Opening Celebration | William Blake — Artist, Poet, Maker, and Radical Thinker
Thursday, September 4, 4–5 pm
To mark the opening of William Blake: Burning Bright, exhibition curators Elizabeth Wyckoff, Curator of Prints and Drawings, and Timothy Young, Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, discuss Blake’s illuminated poems. Moderated by Richard Brodhead, the A. Bartlett Giamatti Professor of English Emeritus and former Interim Director at the Yale Center for British Art, 2024–25. This program will be livestreamed.

Blake: Word and Image
Thursday, September 25, 4–5 pm 
William Blake scholars Sarah Weston, assistant professor of English and art history & archaeology, Washington University, St. Louis; and Jessikah Díaz, PhD candidate in English language and literature, Yale University, consider the relationship between word and image in Blake's multimedia artistic career. The conversation is moderated by Jonathan Kramnick, the Maynard Mack Professor of English and director of graduate studies, Yale University, and is cohosted with the Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Colloquium, English Department, Yale University. This program will be livestreamed.

Book Discussion | Hew Locke: Passages
Tuesday, October 7, 12–12:45 pm
Hew Locke in conversation with Allie Biswas, coeditor, Hew Locke: Passages. Copies of the book, pre-signed by the artist, will be available for purchase for $75. 

Opening Celebration | Artist Talk: Hew Locke
Thursday, October 9, 5:30–6:30 pm
To mark the opening of Hew Locke: Passages, artist Hew Locke talks with Martina Droth, Paul Mellon Director of the YCBA and curator of the exhibition, about his artistic practice, providing insights into his work. This program will be livestreamed. 

The Enduring Influence of William Blake
Thursday, October 30, 5–6 pm
Author John Higgs talks with Timothy Young, Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts. This program will be livestreamed. 

Songs from the Imagination: Music Inspired by the Poetry of William Blake
Thursday, November 20, 5–6:15 pm
Yale Voxtet, the Institute of Sacred Music’s select group of graduate student singers, performs in the Library Court.

Create Community: Imagined Worlds in the Art of William Blake and Hew Lock
Thursdays, October 2, 16, and 23, 5:30–6:45 pm
Artists Blake and Locke use collage, text, printing, and color to imagine new worlds of possibility and to challenge the status quo. This three-part workshop explores William Blake: Burning Bright and Hew Locke: Passages through a close investigation of material and process to see how the artists create innovative ways of shifting perspectives and opening the imagination. Adults of all artistic abilities are welcome, and all materials are supplied. Enrollment is limited to twelve people; preregistration is required. 

Talks 

Curated Insights: Conversations from the Field
The YCBA is a meeting place for thinkers and professionals in the fields of art, art history, architecture, and museum studies from around the world. These moderated conversations connect global ideas to local questions. The programs will be livestreamed.

Wednesday, September 3, 1–2 pm 
Lord Norman Foster and Deborah Berke, Edward P. Bass Dean and J.M. Hoppin Professor of Architecture, Yale School of Architecture

Wednesday, November 12, 12–1 pm
Arnold Lehman, former director of the Brooklyn Museum, and Hannah Wirta Kinney, Head of Education, YCBA

Beyond Britain
Tuesdays, September 9, October 7, November 4, December 2, 12:30 pm
These lunchtime gallery talks focus on a single artwork that highlights the global histories in the YCBA collection.

Research in Action
Tuesdays, September 23, October 21, November 18, December 16, 12:30 pm 
These short discussions examine a single artwork through the ongoing research of the museum’s fellows and researchers.

Find Your Story Here
Fridays, 3:30–4 pm
British art is expansive and inclusive. These intimate gallery and Study Room talks invite visitors to find themselves in the museum’s collection. 

This October, art historian Jackson Davidow, Project Manager, YCBA, leads a series of conversations that explore LGBTQ histories within the YCBA’s collection. Each session considers lesser-known artworks of different media from the eighteenth century to the present that uncover hidden narratives, challenge traditional interpretations, and illuminate the lives and legacies of important queer individuals in British art history. 

October 3: Bust of Niobe’s Daughter 
October 10: A Street Corner in Jamaica 
October 17: Map of Nowhere 
October 24: Joe Orton photographs 
October 31: John Hickley’s Ladies of Llangollen book 

Symposium

Keynote Conversation: Neurodivergence and the Art Museum
Thursday, October 23, 5:30–6:30 pm

Stuart Neilson, PhD, in conversation with Justin Berry, Creative Producer / Project Director XRPeds Lab, The Yale Center for Immersive Technologies in Pediatrics 

Neurodivergence and Art Museums 
Thursday, October 23 – Friday, October 24

This symposium considers how art museums can be reimagined as public spaces that embrace and engage individuals with a diverse range of neuro-abilities, and creates opportunities for dialogue, connection, and innovation. Panelists address the process of creating neuro-inclusive environments from the experience of neurodivergence; audiences for neuro-inclusive design; and the ways in which neurodivergent visitors can discover, navigate, and make use of these environments. These cross-disciplinary discussions explore how different fields engage and embrace neurodivergent visitors and consider how art museums can look to interdisciplinary solutions to open their spaces to the neurodivergent community. 

Family Programs

Make Time! 
Select Saturdays, 2–4 pm 
This drop-in program encourages families to make time to connect and create together. Hands-on activities led and designed by YCBA educators encourage participants to playfully explore artworks in the galleries and express their own creativity.

September 27: Words and Pictures 
November 22: Printing with Friends
December 20: Otherworldly Figures (bilingual program: English and Spanish)

Exploring-art-ism
Select Saturdays, 10:30 am – 12 pm
This program is for families with children aged five to twelve with autism or other sensory processing differences. Participants engage with artwork in the galleries and create a hands-on project in a museum classroom. Fun for parents, caregivers, siblings, and other relatives, too! Registration required.

This program is conducted by the Education department at the Yale Center for British Art and was developed in consultation with the Yale Child Study Center. 

September 27: Tell a Story with Pictures
November 8: Listening to Quiet Pictures
November 22: Printshop
December 20: Ships and Boats

Story Time
Select Saturdays, 10:30 am
Early learners and their families are invited to start the weekend at the YCBA with stories that bring the museum’s exhibitions to life with imagination, wonder, and fun. Each story time highlights books related to themes in our exhibitions.

September 20: William Blake
October 4: In a New Light
October 18: William Blake
October 25: Hew Locke (bilingual program: English and Spanish) 
November 1: Hew Locke (bilingual program: English and Spanish) 
November 15: In a New Light (bilingual program: English and Spanish)
December 6: Hew Locke (bilingual program: English and Spanish)

Teen Programs

Teen Tuesdays
Select Tuesdays, 3–4:30 pm
Teens are invited to make the YCBA their Tuesday afternoon spot for creative fun by joining like-minded peers to explore the galleries, build community, and make art. Bus passes and snacks provided.  

October 21: Word/Image
November 18: Rethink the Everyday
December 16: Performance Art 

Tours

Curator Tours of William Blake: Burning Bright 
Thursdays, September 18, October 30, and November 20, 4–4:45 pm

Curator Tours of Hew Locke: Passages
Thursdays, October 16, November 6, December 11, 4–4:45 pm

William Blake: Burning Bright Exhibition Tours
Saturdays, 3–3:45 pm

Hew Locke: Passages Exhibition Tours
Sundays, 1–1:45 pm

Collection Tours
Fridays, 2–2:45 pm, and Saturdays, 11–11:45 am

Architecture Tours
Sundays, 3–3:45 pm

Student Guide Tours
Saturdays and Sundays, 2–2:45 pm 

About the Yale Center for British Art

Opened in 1977 through the generosity of Yale graduate and philanthropist Paul Mellon, the Yale Center for British Art holds the largest and most significant collection of British art outside the United Kingdom. The collection spans more than five centuries and is the foundation for a museum uniquely focused on the histories, legacies, and shifting contexts of British art. Housed in a celebrated modernist building designed by Louis I. Kahn, the museum is situated on the Yale University campus in the city of New Haven. It is free and open to all.

General Information

The Yale Center for British Art is located at 1080 Chapel Street, New Haven, Connecticut. The museum is open Tuesday–Saturday, 10 am – 5 pm, and Sunday, 11 am – 5 pm. Between September and June, the museum offers late hours on Thursdays and is open 10 am – 7 pm. The YCBA is closed Mondays and major holidays.

Press Contacts

Yale Center for British Art 
ycba.press@yale.edu | +1 203 432 2856

Hanna Gisel
Hanna Gisel Communications
hanna@hannagisel.com | +1 716 866 5302