The Citizen Arts International Festival has announced the complete schedule for its inaugural season, which runs from September 7 through September 27, 2026. The festival will host events in public spaces across New York City, offering free admission to all performances and activities.
Founded as a woman-led initiative, the festival brings international performances, participatory art, and cultural programming directly into neighborhood parks and public areas across the boroughs. The movement was created in response to civic leaders and policy advocates seeking to expand equitable cultural access throughout the city.
Programming for the three-week event encompasses new circus, dance, music, theater, and interactive performances. The lineup is designed to encourage audience participation alongside traditional viewing, turning neighborhood locations into spaces for cultural exchange.
The festival collaborates with numerous local organizations, including The Ukrainian Museum, Culture Lab LIC, The Bushwick Starr, La MaMa ETC, and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Additional partners include the Bronx Children’s Museum, Barnard Movement Lab, and NYCEDC’s MADE Bush Terminal.
Co-directors Meg Araneo, Natalie Rine, and Elena Siyanko lead the organization, bringing experience in nonprofit management, international touring, and academic practice. The leadership team focuses on public engagement and community partnerships to deliver multidisciplinary arts programming.
“Public culture is civic infrastructure,” the co-directors said in a joint statement. “Citizen Arts International is doubling down on radical accessibility — bringing global performance directly into neighborhoods, free of charge, and using public space to spark dialogue, imagination, and connection across difference.”
2026 Programs
CAI FESTIVAL LAUNCH!
A GATHERING AT ASTORIA PARK
September 7 | 12:30PM
Join us in Astoria Park to kick off Citizen Arts International with an easygoing afternoon of gathering, connecting, and celebrating performance in public space. Meet the CAI team, get to know some of the artists behind this year’s festival, and connect with others who are part of the vibrant world of performance and public space. Come hang out, share a little time together, and experience the park as a place for art, community, and unexpected encounters. No big agenda—just good company, good conversation, and a chance to get the festival started together.
SERVE AND PROTECT
DIRECT ACTION THEATRE
U.S. Premiere
September 9–10 | Community Workshops (Not Public Performances)
September 12 & 13 | Pop-Up Locations Coming Soon
A participatory public performance from Norway, Serve and Protect playfully reimagines the visual language of authority. Through dance, humor, and unexpected encounters, the work invites audiences to experience the dynamic between joy and political critique, transforming public space into a place where power, community, and care can be explored through shared participation.
The performance is preceded by a multi-day workshop with community members to create an environment of listening and exchange.
FROM SKY TO EARTH
JAMES BRANDON LEWIS +
ANTOINE LE MENESTREL
World Premiere
September 12 | NYCEDC’s MADE Bush Terminal | 5PM
From Sky to Earth reimagines New York City’s built environment as a site of performance, transforming building facades into a dynamic stage where Le Menestrel’s vertical dance meets Lewis’s live, improvised score. Blurring the boundaries between architecture, performance, and live music, the work invites audiences to experience the city from an entirely new perspective.
From Sky to Earth was commissioned by Citizen Arts International and is co-produced by Citizen Arts International and Citizen Arts and Education Inc.
SUZIK
FORCE
NYC Premiere
September 12 | Culture Lab LIC | 3PM
September 13 | The Bushwick Starr | 3:30PM
SUZIK is a striking three-person Chinese pole performance that reimagines verticality as a space for cooperation rather than competition. Set against the gravity-defying line of the pole, the performers resist rigid hierarchies of a “vertical society” by supporting one another. SUZIK (meaning “verticality” in Korean) proposes a new understanding of balance, coexistence, and shared progress, where harmony is found not in dominance but in collective care.
Presented in partnership with The Bushwick Starr, Culture Lab LIC, and La MaMa ETC.
FLAMBOYANTS!
LA COMPAGNIE TILAWCIS
NYC Premiere
September 17 | The Jackie Robinson Bandshell | 6:30PM
September 18 | MADE Bush Terminal | 7:30PM
A documentary and musical theatre project, Flamboyants! weaves together New Orleans, Réunion, and Puerto Rican cultures. Enriched by Réunion-based musicians Frédéric Madia and Zélito Deliron, this collaboration between Florient Jousse and Mardi Gras Indian leader Big Chief Juan Pardo blends theatre, music, and performance to celebrate shared Creole histories and transoceanic connection.
Flamboyants! will be presented in two formats: a concert performance at Jackie Robinson Bandshell and a full theatrical presentation at MADE Bush Terminal.
RESERVOIR
MARÍA JOSÉ CONTRERAS
September 17-18 | Barnard Movement Lab | 6:30PM
Reservoir is an immersive performance emerging from The Water Crisis of Santiago, an interdisciplinary research project on glacier retreat and water scarcity. Blending live performance with virtual and augmented reality, the work invites audiences to experience the invisible dynamics of the global water crisis, revealing how climate change reshapes the landscapes, ecosystems, and cities that depend on water.
Developed and performed by artist María José Contreras, the piece was created in collaboration with the interdisciplinary research project The Water Crisis of Santiago, supported by the Columbia Global – President’s Global Innovation Fund, and developed during the Artist in Residency Program at the Barnard Movement Lab.
UKRAINIAN DREAMS
TAIS PODA + MASTERVOICES
U.S. Premiere
September 25-26 | Cooper Square | 8:30PM
Building facades come alive with Ukrainian Dreams, a luminous outdoor projection installation transforming urban space into a canvas of color and memory. Drawing on the visionary folk art of Maria Prymachenko, the piece unfolds in radiant, shifting imagery— flowers, animals, and dreamlike forms that speak to resilience, imagination, and the enduring spirit of Ukrainian culture. The installation is accompanied by a vocal score of Ukrainian songs performed live by New York City’s MasterVoices, weaving sound and image into a single immersive experience.
Presented in partnership with The Ukrainian Museum.
THE GARDEN
FLYING LEAP
September 27 | Bronx Children’s Museum | 2PM & 3:30PM
The Garden is a radically inclusive, interactive performance that explores nature and the life cycle with very young children aged 0-5 and their families in a public green space. Through movement theater, poetic text in multiple languages, music, and interactive play, families engage all five senses. The Garden offers play and respite as collectively those gathered consider nature’s cycle and their place within it.
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