Ocean Season

Pioneer Works is pleased to present Ocean Season, a series of programs exploring our relationship to bodies of water, aligned with Climate Week NYC (September 20–27). Unfolding alongside the cultural center’s annual fall programs, Ocean Season 2026 is one of Pioneer Works’ most dynamic, ambitious, and concrete commitments to its 14-year-long mission to explore and collapse the gap between arts, science, and culture.

Ocean Season will be anchored by two new exhibitions by PW Resident Alum Tuomas Laitinen and OceanX Education Artist Resident LaJuné McMillian, alongside a slate of public programs and a new series of specially commissioned digital articles on Broadcast.

Ocean Season Schedule

Fall Exhibitions

• Tuomas Laitinen: Siphon
• Finnegan Shannon: There's no me without you
• LaJuné McMillian: Child/ren of the Bloom

Public Programs

• September 13 – Second Sundays: September 2026
• September 20-27 – Climate Week NYC
• September 22 — Science & Society: The Ocean Frontier
• September 25 – FLOODLINES
• October 6 – Supper Club with Pierce Abernathy
• October 11 – Second Sundays: October 2026
• October 13 – Scientific Controversies: Octopus Umwelt

OCEANS on Broadcast

1. The Dreams of Octopus and Cuttlefish by Peter Godfrey-Smith
2. Against the Ocean Wall by Lauren Markham
3. A Library of Oceanic Feelings by Jamieson Webster
4. The Sea Before Us by Jessica Riskin
5. Where Cities and Oceans Meet by Brad Bolman
6. The Secret Lives of Oceanic Manta Rays by Sy Montgomery
7. The Village Beneath the Waves by David Gruber
8. On Metamorphosis by Beatrice Steinert
9. Buoyancy by Caroline Tracey
10. The Hidden Sound of Ice by Marco Tedesco with Lee Arnold
11. Ocean Reveries by D. Graham Burnett

Ocean Season is presented by Pioneer Works and supported by Dalio Philanthropies.

Science programming at Pioneer Works is supported by the Simons Foundation International and administered by the Simons Foundation's Science, Society & Culture division.