EARTH TO SPACE Three-Week Festival is Coming to the Kennedy Center

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will present EARTH to SPACE: Arts Breaking the Sky, a three-week festival of live performances, films, art, interactive exhibits, and discussions designed to ignite a sense of awe at the marvels of the universe. From March 28 to April 20, 2025, EARTH to SPACE will transform the Kennedy Center into an immersive hub of discovery, where musicians come together with astronauts, poets with physicists, and visual artists with engineers, engaging visitors of all ages to explore new perspectives on the natural world.

EARTH to SPACE is the third installment of the Kennedy Center’s decade-long initiative dedicated to arts and nature. Inspired by the vision of President Kennedy, who mobilized the country to achieve the first Moon landing in 1969, EARTH to SPACE will transform the Center into a vibrant arena where creative expression and scientific inquiry spark fresh ideas.

“With NASA’s mission to send humans to the Moon for the first time in 50 years and conversations around tourism to other planets, asteroid mining, and even colonies on Mars, there is no doubt that space is at the forefront of our current zeitgeist. EARTH to SPACE builds on this exciting moment and offers a platform to examine the wonders that have captured so many minds. The festival unites voices across disciplines and borders to ignite curiosity and bold new ideas that will resonate far beyond the walls of the Kennedy Center,” said Alicia Adams, vice president of international programming and co-curator of the festival.

Programming Highlights

Through vibrant partnerships, EARTH to SPACE will bring together an extraordinary global community, with participants representing countries across six continents sharing their knowledge and creativity in ways that inspire new perspectives, while demonstrating how diverse cultures contribute to understanding both Earth and the cosmos. Featuring numerous world premieres, inspiring panel conversations with leading figures from the arts and sciences, and immersive exhibits, EARTH to SPACE will invite audiences to reimagine the universal nature of exploration and innovation.

EARTH to SPACE will launch on March 28 with the U.S. premiere of The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks. Co-written by Tom Hanks and Christopher Riley and narrated by Hanks, the epic film, projected in 360 degrees, tells the stories of the Apollo moon missions in immersive and intimate detail while looking ahead to the impending return of crewed surface missions with behind-the-scenes visits to the Artemis program. The Moonwalkers will run for the duration of the festival through April 20 in the Kennedy Center’s nearly-4,000-square-foot Studio K.
 
For Interspecies Love Letter, renowned contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang, in collaboration with his custom AI model cAI™ (pronounced “AI Cai”), will transform the Kennedy Center’s Skylight Pavilion into an interactive, multidimensional cAI™ Lab. The exhibition centers on the creative journey in producing Interspecies Love Letter: Sky Painting for EARTH to SPACE (details to come). Key works include a co-created glass and mirror gunpowder painting made through extensive experimentation, an animation by cAI™ created specifically for the exhibition, and a documentary video of sky painting. Visitors will also see Cai’s creative sketches and gunpowder painting studies created by the cAI™-powered robotic arm. The exhibition presents the evolution of “gunpowder painter cAI™” and “fireworks master cAI™” through various interactive experiences: cAI™’s self-introduction video, a participatory fireworks co-creation installation with the audience, and documentary videos of cAI™’s earlier works.

STARMUS, the renowned global festival of science, music, and art, will partner with EARTH to SPACE to present its U.S. debut. This special edition of STARMUS, running April 1–2, will showcase a launch performance with the STARMUS All Stars band, astronaut Colonel Chris Hadfield, STARMUS cofounder and astrophysicist Garik Israelian, and quantum mind reader David Zambuka. The launch event will also feature the Kennedy Center’s Youth Ambassador for the Arts & Environment, Aneeshwar Kunchala; the Capitol Hill Chorale; and dance by the members of the Debbie Allen Dance Academy with Debbie Allen, inspired by a poem written by her mother Vivian Ayers Allen, who was one of NASA’s “hidden figures.” Other STARMUS programs will include Nobel Laureate speakers, talks from astronauts, and films. 

The U.S. premiere of From Earth to Space and Back, an exhibition by Norman Foster and Foster + Partners, will open on March 28, showcasing groundbreaking projects—including 3D-printed lunar habitats and Spaceport America—and exploring how designs for Mars and the Moon inspire sustainable solutions on Earth. Featuring scale models, 3D-printed structures, and immersive films, the exhibition reveals how reaching for the stars can help build a better future on Earth. Works by artists Brendan Murphy (U.S.), Jitish Kallat (India), Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm (Denmark), and the Wave: From Space to Ocean installation will enchant the Center’s halls.

In a world-premiere commission by the Kennedy Center, Mark Morris Dance Group will present MOON April 4–5. Inspired by the Golden Record placed aboard 1977 Voyager spacecraft as a means of communicating with extraterrestrials, choreographer Mark Morris combines textual, visual, and musical inspirations in a work that seeks to understand the timeless allure of the moon. Additional dance highlights include renowned choreographer Alan Lucien Øyen (Norway) with the U.S. premiere of Still Life, and choreographer Malavika Sarukai (India), who will present the U.S. premiere of Beeja - Earth Seed.

Aneeshwar Kunchala, the Kennedy Center’s 10-year-old Youth Ambassador for the Arts & Environment—and Guinness World Records’ Youngest Documentary Presenter—launches the world premiere of his new documentary, Discovering Earth from the Stars: Aneeshwar at NASA, produced by the Kennedy Center. In the film, Kunchala visits NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center for the first time, exploring how innovative space technology can help protect and preserve Earth. Following the screening, a conversation with NASA experts will delve into the film’s themes and insights.

Brian Greene, renowned professor of physics and mathematics and director of the Center for Theoretical Physics at Columbia University, will take audiences on a dramatic journey through the cosmos April 9–12 in Starry Night: A Voyage Across Space and Time, a one-person narrative he wrote and performs. Created by the World Science Festival, the production blends storytelling with stunning multimedia visuals to transform our perspective on humanity’s place in the universe. On April 5, another special solo performance will feature poet Chief Moomen (Ghana).

Two quilted portraits of female astronauts by former astronaut and textile artist Karen Nyberg celebrate and honor the first woman to travel into space (Valentina Tereshkova) and the first American woman to fly into space (Sally Ride). The exhibition is accompanied by a nationwide quilt competition, The Next Giant Leap: Lunar Quilts. Students and individual artists submitted quilt blocks based on the festival’s lunar theme. Chosen by a jury consisting of Nyberg; Bonnie Schrock, executive director of the National Quilt Museum; Donna Shafer, associate center director of NASA Johnson Space Center; and executives from the Kennedy Center, the winning designs will be displayed as part of the two completed “Lunar Quilts” in the Hall of States, alongside space suits for Mars designed by textile artist Anurita Chandola.

On March 30, the National Symphony Orchestra will present a space-themed family concert celebrating the beauty and discoveries of space inspired by the planets, stars, and the upcoming Artemis II mission. Led by space enthusiast conductor Emil de Cou, the program blends stirring music with evocative images to take audiences on a celestial journey. Following the performance, a creative conversation will invite young audience members to engage with artists and creative team members—Aneeshwar Kunchala and Karen Nyberg—to explore the stories and inspirations behind the show.

The festival’s MOON ROCK CLUB will offer an intimate cabaret space for engaging conversations over drinks and performances featuring space food expert Vickie Kloeris (U.S.), composer Ihab Darwin (UAE), Nikolaj Hess & Spacelab band (Denmark), José André Quartet (Bolivia), and Margaret Leng Tan (Singapore).

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