NEXT Festival
The NEXT Festival, Corcoran’s annual celebration of its graduating students, is open April 17 - May 16, 2024. Visit our festival guide to see the complete schedule.
The NEXT exhibition will be on view from April 17 - May 16, 2024, Wednesday to Sunday, 1- 5 pm at 500 17th Street NW. The exhibition will also remain open during graduation weekend, May 17 - 18, for students' families to enjoy.
Join us for our NEXT Festival Extravaganza on Thursday, April 25, 6:30 - 9 pm. RSVP here by April 22; register up to six guests.
This year, NEXT will feature more than 47 physical exhibits, 22 live performances, and 4 panel and research-based presentations. Students explore sustainability, a return to craftsmanship, nuanced tales of queer identity, the possibility of DC statehood and much more.
About NEXT Festival
Students at the Corcoran have exhibited their thesis work for more than 30 years. In 2011, the exhibition came to be known as NEXT in a nod to the public seeing “what’s next” in contemporary art and scholarship. In 2023, NEXT evolved into a festival format to encompass the diversity of all the school’s programs and provide more public facing programming for the DC community. The festival offers an opportunity to highlight the school’s dynamic programs and cultivates more interdisciplinary partnerships among the students and faculty.
Attendees are able to view and engage with the vast displays of the end-of-year projects and appreciate the contemporary arts, dance performances, musical pieces, and research writing that the students have to offer.
NEXT Festival projects take many forms in the fields of theatre, dance, music, studio arts, design, art history, interior architecture, museum studies and more. They all represent a culmination of a student's learning experiences at the Corcoran and a glimpse of future promise. Their work also reflects the care and commitment of our faculty and staff in supporting, teaching and mentoring our students’ work. Students exhibit their theses and presentations to an audience of their peers, faculty and the George Washington University and D.C. arts community.
NEXT Calendar
Festival Guide
Browse the complete list of student participants and individual student projects from NEXT Festival 2024.
Explore NEXT
See NEXT shows from the last few years, including exhibition books, virtual projects and tours of the Flagg Building.
