Lincoln Center to Host Big Umbrella Festival Celebrating Neurodiversity in April

​The Big Umbrella Festival will return to Lincoln Center this spring for a multi-week series of free and choose-what-you-pay performances, workshops, and outdoor installations designed with and for the neurodiverse community. From April 10-26, the festival invites audiences of all ages to experience the arts in welcoming, accessible ways with offerings across dance, music, theater, comedy, art installations, and more.

Launched in 2018, the Big Umbrella Festival was the first large-scale performing arts festival of its kind designed specifically with neurodivergent audiences at its center. From the beginning, the festival has championed innovative, sensory-based, and interactive arts experiences that meet audiences where they are.

The Big Umbrella Festival continues to grow in scale and scope each year, welcoming thousands of New Yorkers to Lincoln Center's campus for a wide-ranging slate of performances and activities from artists around the world.

Tickets for Choose-What-You-Pay events go on sale to the public Thursday, February 5. Waitlists will be available for sold-out performances.

Highlights include:

Mi Casa, Your Casa 2.0—an interactive outdoor installation from Esrawe + Cadena (Mexico) featuring a series of three-dimensional red frames on Josie Robertson Plaza, inviting passerby to relax and sway in the small houses at their leisure (April 10-26).

Glasgow-based dance-theater company Barrowland Ballet returns to Big Umbrella Festival with The Unexpected Gift—inviting neurodivergent audiences into an interactive, multi-sensory wonderland, transforming ordinary objects into something magical (April 10-12 & 17-19).

Antarctica! Crew Wanted from Rosán's Sensory Adventures (Ireland) invites neurodivergent audiences to an immersive participatory theater work. Created by Phillida Eves and Amélie Bal, the piece is inspired by Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition of 1915, and weaves movement, music, and sensory storytelling into a travel experience centered on teamwork and friendship (April 17-26).

AXIS Dance Company, one of the nation's most acclaimed ensembles of disabled, non-disabled, D/deaf, and neurodiverse performers, presents Patterns in Alice Tully Hall—featuring works by Nadia Adame, Sonya Delwaide, Christopher Unpezverde Nunez, Kayla Hamilton, and Natasha Adorlee Westbrook (April 17-19).

CMS Kids: Tuneful Teamwork invites audiences to experience chamber music up close in a relaxed and welcoming environment with the The Viano Quartet —featuring lively pieces by  Haydn, Grant Still, Beethoven, Borodin, Mendelssohn, and Bridge — showing different ways to lead, follow, and play as a team (April 18-19).

Lincoln Center Teaching Artists lead an interactive Box of Wonders Workshop—using multisensory objects and art-making tools to create magical spaces of warmth and comfort (April 18).

A vibrant and community-powered evening with ASL Slam in the David Rubenstein Atrium, offering a stage for members of the ASL and Deaf/signing community to share and create traditional, contemporary, and experimental sign language literature. Plus, ASL Baby Slam: a unique morning program geared towards younger audiences (April 18).

ReelAbilities Comedy Night brings an evening of standup comedy to the Kaplan Penthouse, presented in collaboration with the 18th Annual ReelAbilities Film Festival. This one-night-only performance features an outstanding lineup of disabled comedians, to be announced in March (April 24).

Visual art stations led by Lincoln Center's Education team and Teaching Artists.

To celebrate this year's Big Umbrella Festival, a limited-edition benefit print and commemorative poster by Rayed Mohamed will be published by Lincoln Center Editions. Complimentary posters will be gifted to attendees while supplies last.

All events are Relaxed Performances, part of a campus-wide series providing a supportive social environment for individuals with autism, sensory and communication disorders, or learning disabilities. Attendees can enter and leave audience spaces as needed, vocalize, and move freely, creating a "no shushing" zone. Chill out spaces and visual art spaces are also available. For more information about Relaxed Performances, visit LincolnCenter.org/Relaxed.

Visual Guides in English and Spanish offer detailed directions, arrival instructions, and venue amenities with images. Additionally, all events are located on accessible routes with accessible entrances, restrooms, and seating.