(re)OPEN MINDS: Adapting to the Future 2026

Gesche Joost, Toronto, 2016 © Goethe-Institut Toronto / Marko Kovacevic

(re)OPEN MINDS 2026: Goethe-Institut Toronto Kickstarts Program To Explore Culture as Catalyst for Resilience

Year-long international program maps out how arts and design help us navigate converging global crises, from climate threats to tech disruption.

The Goethe-Institut Toronto, in collaboration with SK Futures Inc., announces (re)OPEN MINDS: Adapting to the Future 2026, a year-long cross-sector and cross-disciplinary program examining the role of art and design in fostering resilience at the intersection of cultures, technology, and well-being. The initiative will feature works and ideas by artists and thinkers such as Wim Wenders, Ildikó Enyedi, Lilly Lulay, Christina Kubisch, Byung-Chul Han, alongside ongoing engagements with cultural practitioners, tech innovators, and community and thought leaders.

The project kicks off with a free hybrid colloquium co-hosted with the Design Research Lab at Berlin’s University of the Arts over the winter 2025/26 term. Experts from Canada to Croatia speak on “Art & Design as an Early Warning System” and inspire the students’ prototyping of speculative futures. Canadian artist Skawennati will discuss her work imagining Indigenous futures through AR, fashion and more. Caitlin Fisher, Director of York University’s Immersive Storytelling Lab, examines gendered experiences in virtual spaces. Other contributors are art historian Nausikaä El-Mecky (Barcelona), curator Ivica Mitrović (Split), designer Maciej Chmara (Gdansk/Vienna/Berlin), and media theorist Daniel Irrgang (Berlin).

Marking a decade since the Goethe-Institut’s original OPEN MINDS landmark program in 2016 at Toronto’s Music Garden, this latest initiative revisits urgent questions about how creativity and culture help us address today’s converging global crises. Under the auspices of Prof. Dr. Gesche Joost, President of the Goethe-Institut, Germany’s world-wide cultural centre, the program brings together artists and audiences to answer the question “What makes you stronger in the face of challenges?” Joost will carry the question into the Goethe network from Dakar to Kyiv.

“Since 2016, the world has changed in ways few could have predicted,” notes Gesche Joost, who was part of the 2016 program and will return to Toronto in 2026. “With its experimental power, critical visions, and social impact, culture helps us reimagine alternative and more resilient futures.”

(re)OPEN MINDS 2026 unfolds across two interconnected seasons exploring the cultural dimensions of technology and the environment: The spring focus on Algorithmic Cultures examines AI, digital disruption, and speculative futures, while the fall programming on Climate Cultures turns to human-nature relationships and ideas for ecological resilience. The programming features art exhibitions, media installations, film series, community workshops, philosophy strolls, and public dialogues, with contributions emphasizing connections to democracy, health, migration, and more.

“This is not another program about crises but a big-tent invitation to explore how arts and culture help us—personally and collectively—to meet and deal with the polycrisis,” explain curators Jutta Brendemühl and Sanjay Khanna. “Our approach is critical not cynical, open not partisan, curious not naïve, urgent but hopeful.”

By spotlighting the power of cultural insight and foresight and emphasizing change-making activated by a broad range of creative encounters, (re)OPEN MINDS 2026 aims to inspire and platform local responses to global challenges—keeping minds open and opening minds.

More programming and partnerships for Toronto and beyond to be announced at goethe.de/toronto/events.

(re)OPEN MINDS: Adapting to the Future
Presented by the Goethe-Institut Toronto & partners
Curated by Jutta Brendemühl & Sanjay Khanna
Under the auspices of Prof. Dr. Gesche Joost, President of the Goethe-Institut

#reOpenMinds #GoetheTO

Program & Media Contact:
Jutta Brendemühl
Program Curator
Goethe-Institut Toronto
jutta.brendemuehl@goethe.de

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