Get your diary ready and start taking notes, because the year ahead is packed with major exhibitions that promise a particularly intense 2026 from a cultural perspective. These exhibitions will be complemented by activities that are already classics in the city’s museum calendar, including Night at the Museums (16 May), Museu Endins (7 March), and the Creation and Museums programme, which connects museums and heritage sites with the programming of the Grec Festival of Barcelona (July) and Barcelona Dibuixa (17–18 October).

Among the many exhibitions scheduled, the following stand out:

Barcelona City Historical Archive

“Agustí Duran i Sanpere. Culture as a Public Service” (12 March – 30 September) Held on the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Agustí Duran i Sanpere, historian, archaeologist and ethnographer, and former director of the Municipal Institute of History of Barcelona.

Barcelona Photographic Archive

“Daguerreotype Laboratory of the Blanxart Family” (12–15 February) A micro-exhibition inaugurating El Visor, a series of small-format exhibitions highlighting singular pieces from the archive’s collections, in this case early photographic works.

“Barcelona and the Sky: Balloons, Aeroplanes and Photography” (11 June – 1 November) Images charting the conquest of Barcelona’s urban sky, from the first aerial photographs taken from a balloon in 1888 to aerial photogrammetry.

“Marta Povo. The Poetics of Light” (26 November 2026 – 23 May 2027) An exhibition on the artistic and commissioned work of architectural, interior and landscape photographer Marta Povo Audenis (Barcelona, 1951).

Arús Public Library

“The Year of Josep Llunas i Pujals – Typographer, Journalist, Freethinker and Catalan Anarchist” (until 23 January) An exhibition dedicated to this prominent 19th-century typographer, journalist, poet, freethinker and anarchist.

Fabra i Coats Centre for Contemporary Art

“Like Stones in the Palms, Embers and Flame” (7 February – 21 May) A group exhibition curated by Chiara Cartuccia exploring the intersection between destruction and histories of anti-colonial resistance, uprising, revolution and political radicalism across the Mediterranean.

“Patricia Esquivias” (5 May – 20 September) An exhibition centred on the epistolary relationships Esquivias has developed over the years with figures connected to her work.

“Finalist Works in the Miquel Casablancas 2026 Call – Sant Andreu Contemporani” (13 June – 12 July)

Montjuïc Castle

“SEAT: A Factory of Transformations” (from spring)

“International Brigades and Multilingualism” (from spring)

La Capella 

“Guasch Coranty Grants” (until 18 January) Creation and research projects by students from the University of Barcelona’s Faculty of Fine Arts.

“A Search That Is a Groping” (27 January – 12 April) A project curated by Mercedes Pimiento featuring sculptures that dialogue with the exhibition space.

“Like an Old Enemy” (27 January – 12 April) An exhibition based on a 1993 illustration by Chuso Ordi related to the AIDS crisis and a 1989 photograph addressing insubordination to compulsory military service.

“Left Eye” (22 April – 5 July) by artist Sinead Spelman created specifically for La Capella.

“Soft-Shelled Turtle” (22 April – 5 July) Sculptures by Mikel Adán Tolosa exploring relationships between materials, hard and soft bodies, cold and warm, organic and inorganic.

“The Blindest Stain” (14 July – 27 September) Artist Ana Martínez Fernández explores illegibility as a shaping force of everyday life.

“Totxana” (14 July – 27 September) A reflection on Barcelona’s housing crisis through sculptural works by Xavi Lozano Segarra.

“Heat Shimmer, Hips Quiver, Open Smother, Lipped Lover” (20 October – 17 January 2027) Curated by Margot E. Cuevas, bringing together performance, text and scenographic production by several artists.

DHUB 

“Digital Impact” (22 October 2026 – 14 March 2027) The second part of the exhibition devoted exclusively to digital art—an immersive experience blurring the boundaries between physical and virtual worlds.

“Asunción Bastida. The Grand Dame of Spanish Haute Couture” (4 November 2026 – 14 March 2027)

Fabra i Coats – Creation Factory

“Feedback” (4 February – 11 March 2026) An artistic exhibition based on dialogue between the public and resident artists, with weekly sessions featuring two artists per event.

Frederic Marès Museum

“Montserrat, Mother and Land” (until 24 May 2026) Montserrat-related iconography and memorabilia in the year marking the monastery’s millennium.

“Michael Kleine” (April – July 2026) An artistic installation in collaboration with the Joan Miró Foundation and the Joan Brossa Foundation.

“Sacred Subirachs” (November – May 2027) Around thirty small- and medium-format religious works by Josep Maria Subirachs.

La Model

“And After Franco, What? (1965–1975)” (until 18 July) Curated by Andreu Mayayo and José Manuel Rua, marking the fiftieth anniversary of Franco’s death.

“Catalan Women’s Conferences” (May – July 2026) Curated by Carmen Domingo, commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the first Catalan Women’s Conferences (1976).

Monastery of Santa Maria de Pedralbes

“700th Anniversary” (dates to be announced) A special programme marking seven hundred years of the monastery’s history.

Museum of Ethnology and World Cultures

Montcada site: 

“Ainu. An Indigenous Culture of Japan” (currently on display).
An exhibition project focused on the Ainu, an Indigenous people from the northern regions of the Japanese archipelago.

Montjuïc Park Site:
“Nicolau Maria Rubió i Tudurí (1891–1981). Lessons in Landscape” (5 March – 17 May).
A journey through the work and thinking of the Minorcan architect and landscape designer Nicolau Maria Rubió i Tudurí.

“Centenary of the Death of Antoni Gaudí” (June 2026 – February 2027).
A new perspective on the architect’s family and artisanal origins and their relationship to his work.

“The Largest Museum” (June – September 2026, also at the Montjuïc Park site).
A photographic exhibition highlighting the value of older people’s creativity, perspectives and experience as active protagonists in cultural life.

Barcelona History Museum

Oliva Artés Site (exhibitions related to the World Capital of Architecture):

“COAC Architecture Exhibitions” (19 February – 8 April). An exhibition aimed at promoting and showcasing the work of architects from across Catalonia.

“The Imprint of Time” (19 February – 8 April). An exhibition focused on the winners of the Rosa Barba Prize, awarded as part of the International Landscape Biennial.

“Cities Connection Project” (16 April – 7 June). Public architecture projects created by more than three hundred architecture studios, with Barcelona as the epicentre alongside various European cities and others from different continents.

“Award-Winning Architecture. 125 Years of Architecture Awards” (11 June – 28 August). A retrospective promoted by ARQUIN-FAD covering the 67 editions of the FAD Architecture Awards and their predecessors, the Barcelona Architecture and Urban Planning Awards granted by the City Council since the late 19th century.

Plaça del Rei Site:

“Houses of Knowledge. Barcelona and the University: Building the City, Building Knowledge” (May – September). An exhibition on university studies in Barcelona, from the first medieval university to the dawn of the 21st century, in collaboration with the University of Barcelona and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.

El Born Site:

“Barcelona: City and Theatre” (28 May – early September). Curated by Joan Alvarez Garcia-Luján, Antoni Ramon Graells and Ivan Alcázar, this exhibition explores the relationship between theatres and the city of Barcelona over time, and how theatrical activity has influenced the city’s urban growth and transformation.

“Students Against Franco” (mid-November – April 2027). An exhibition on the anti-Franco student movement in Spain, produced in collaboration with the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory.

Picasso Museum

“Picasso and Cyprus: Encounters with Mediterranean Ceramics” (14 May – 28 September). What do Picasso’s ceramics have in common with those from Cyprus? This exhibition, curated by Emmanuel Guigon and Androula Michael, explores those connections.

“Picasso: The Architect” (20 November – 8 March 2027). Curated by Maisa Navarro, this exhibition focuses on Picasso as a creator and builder of spaces.

La Virreina Centre de la Imatge

On 14 January, the exhibitions for the upcoming season at La Virreina Centre de la Imatge will be announced.