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Arts publishes Special Issues to create collections of papers on specific topics, with the aim of building a community of authors and readers to discuss the latest research and develop new ideas and research directions. Special Issues are led by Guest Editors, who are experts on the topic and all Special Issue submissions follow MDPI's standard editorial process. The journal’s Editor-in-Chief and/or designated Editorial Board Member will oversee Guest Editor appointments and Special Issue proposals, checking their content for relevance and ensuring the suitability of the material for the journal. The papers published in a Special Issue will be collected and displayed on a dedicated page of the journal’s website. Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies and Guest Editor responsibilities can be found here. For any inquiries related to a Special Issue, please contact the Editorial Office.

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Music, Gesture, and Embodiment: New Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Gesture–Sound Studies

edited by

Stella Paschalidou

submission deadline 15 Jul 2026 | 1 articles | Viewed by 1067 | Submission Open

Keywords: embodied music cognition; music and gesture; gesture–sound relationship; gesture analysis; motion capture technologies; multimodality; interdisciplinary approaches; video-based gesture recognition; multimodal interaction; video-based gesture recognition

Performative Imaging: Post-Digital Medialities in Contemporary Moving Image Practices

edited by Gabriel Menotti,

Cornelia Lund

and

Ana Carvalho

submission deadline 31 Jul 2026 | Viewed by 1730 | Submission Open

Keywords: performance; installation; moving image; embodiment; participation; environmental; spatiality; post-digital; archives

Contemporary Development of American Film

edited by Catherine L. Benamou and Philana Payton

submission deadline 1 Aug 2026 | 1 articles | Viewed by 2106 | Submission Open

Keywords: biopics; film adaptation; independent cinema; film and television labor; social justice; exhibition practices; narrative form; queer/trans representation; marginalized filmmakers; production studies; race/gender/class/sexuality

Divine Visions: A Global Exploration of Devotional Art and Iconography, c. 1200–1700

edited by Katharine Scherff

submission deadline 1 Aug 2026 | Viewed by 794 | Submission Open

Keywords: devotion; iconography; materiality; embodiment; transcultural; performance; multisensory; ritual; representation; sacred

Visible Records: Mapping the Narrative of Vernacular Design

edited by

Dori Griffin

submission deadline 15 Aug 2026 | Viewed by 327 | Submission Open

Keywords: vernacular design; pluriversal visual languages; design and autonomy; design and power; design and belonging

(This special issue belongs to the Section Visual Arts)

Restitution Beyond Repatriation: Rethinking African Tangible Heritage in Twenty-First Century Museums

edited by

Clement Akpang

submission deadline 31 Aug 2026 | 5 articles | Viewed by 11047 | Submission Open

Keywords: restitution; African art; museum; repatriation; decolonization

Artist-Led Practice: Bridging Art and Life

edited by Julie Crawshaw

submission deadline 31 Aug 2026 | Viewed by 1096 | Submission Open

Keywords: artist-led practice; John Dewey; aesthetics

Picasso Studies (Third Edition)

edited by Enrique Mallen

submission deadline 31 Aug 2026 | Viewed by 246 | Submission Open

Keywords: Picasso; language; cubism; collage; interdisciplinary

(This special issue belongs to the Section Visual Arts)

Visual Culture, Emotion, and the Body in Early Modern Europe

edited by

Rebecca M. Howard

submission deadline 6 Sep 2026 | Viewed by 725 | Submission Open

Keywords: physicality; anatomy; medium; sensory; embodiment; mortality; emotion; perception; memory; materiality; agency; humanism

(This special issue belongs to the Section Visual Arts)

Arts and Refugees: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Vol. 3)—the Global South

edited by

Marco Martiniello

and

Elsa Mescoli

submission deadline 15 Sep 2026 | 3 articles | Viewed by 3366 | Submission Open

Keywords: arts; refugees; global south; inclusion; exclusion; racialization; intersectionality

Myths in Art, XV–XVII Centuries

edited by

Robert P. Huber, Jr.

submission deadline 30 Sep 2026 | 2 articles | Viewed by 6265 | Submission Open

Keywords: alchemy; allegory; astrology; neo-Platonism; Hermeticism; Renaissance painting; prisca theologia; mythology; humanism; magic

The Art of the Brain: Unlocking the Power of Neuroaesthetics in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

edited by

Elena Sidorova

submission deadline 30 Sep 2026 | 2 articles | Viewed by 2762 | Submission Open

Keywords: neuroaesthetics; art and brain; creativity; cognitive function; emotional regulation; artificial intelligence (AI)

Animals and the Art Academy

edited by Rosemarie McGoldrick and

Ang Bartram

submission deadline 30 Sep 2026 | Viewed by 624 | Submission Open

Keywords: art; artist; animals; humans; ethics; academy; relational

Twenty-Five Years After Post-Black: Reframing Contemporary African American Art

edited by

Daniel L. Haxall

submission deadline 30 Sep 2026 | Viewed by 482 | Submission Open

Keywords: African American Art; Contemporary Art; African Diaspora

Gender, Craft, and the Avant-Gardes: Reimagining Artistic Practices in Transcultural Modernisms

edited by

Miriam Oesterreich

and

Sol Izquierdo de la Viña

submission deadline 30 Sep 2026 | Viewed by 460 | Submission Open

Keywords: avant-garde; transculturality; global modernisms; gender; feminism; queer art history; crafts; material culture; critical modernism studies; critical art history

(This special issue belongs to the Section Applied Arts)

Soundspace

edited by Tess Knighton

submission deadline 30 Sep 2026 | Viewed by 117 | Submission Open

Keywords: soundspace; soundscape; urban musicology; sound studies; history of emotions; history of the senses; affective geography; sound studies

Intersecting Dialogues: Contemporary Art and Architecture in the 21st Century

edited by Pablo Meninato and Gregory Marinic

submission deadline 1 Oct 2026 | 2 articles | Viewed by 5018 | Submission Open

Keywords: contemporary art; architecture; interdisciplinarity; art theory; architecture theory

[Re]thinking and Georeferencing Aesthetic: Heritage, Identity and Time

edited by Maria De Fátima Lambert,

Hugo Monteiro

and

Rui Maia

submission deadline 30 Oct 2026 | Viewed by 432 | Submission Open

Keywords: aesthetic as heritage—between me and you and the other; decolonial aesthetic thought: increasing and repairing; georeferenced aesthetic systems—analysing, reviewing beliefs; reviewing feminist aesthetic thought; revisiting aesthetic and cultural heritage; revising principles, canons and stereotypes; restoring women philosophers for aesthetic historiography; temporality of aesthetic systems—categories and insurrections

Materiality, Process, and Relational Form in Contemporary Photographic Practice

edited by Rebecca Howard

submission deadline 30 Oct 2026 | Viewed by 356 | Submission Open

Keywords: photographic materiality; new materialism; generative photography; tactile image-making; photo-object; post-digital photography

(This special issue belongs to the Section Visual Arts)

The New Politics of Art: Artworks in an Age of Corporate Globalism

edited by Lenore Metrick-Chen

submission deadline 31 Oct 2026 | Viewed by 778 | Submission Open

Keywords: art; audience; alternative; politics; economics; activism; values; critical theory; equity; transformative; capitalism; resistance

Ornament Now: Re-Thinking Ornament in Art, Philosophy, and Everyday Life

edited by

Jakub Mácha

submission deadline 31 Oct 2026 | Viewed by 731 | Submission Open

Keywords: ornamentation; repetition; rhythm; material culture; architecture; craft; digital design; ecology; assemblage; everyday aesthetics; affect; pattern; bio-art

Ethnographic Film Cinematography: Capturing Culture and Human Experience Through the Lens

edited by

Paul Wolffram

submission deadline 31 Oct 2026 | Viewed by 618 | Submission Open

Keywords: ethnography; ethnographic film; anthropology; visual anthropology; ethnographic video; cinematography

Queerness in 18th- and 19th- Century European Art (2nd Edition)

edited by Andrew Shelton

submission deadline 31 Oct 2026 | Viewed by 572 | Submission Open

Keywords: queer; art history; 18th- and 19th- century

(This special issue belongs to the Section Visual Arts)

Art and the Environment

edited by

Mark Watson

submission deadline 31 Oct 2026 | Viewed by 544 | Submission Open

Keywords: art and the environment; ecocritical art; art history

Photography, Civil Society and the Crisis of Democracy

edited by Terri Weissman

submission deadline 15 Nov 2026 | Viewed by 612 | Submission Open

Keywords: photography & democratic crisis; photography & justice; surveillance & sousveillance; photography & evidence; post-truth media; photography & collective action

Asian Diaspora and Mobility in Arts and Visual Culture

edited by Boreth Ly and Michelle Yee

submission deadline 15 Nov 2026 | Viewed by 422 | Submission Open

Keywords: diaspora; displacement; labor; gender; sexuality; homeland; mobility; nation; modern and contemporary art; material culture; visual culture; art history; performance; film

(This special issue belongs to the Section Visual Arts)

Cinema and the Century: Film as a Mirror of Modern Life

edited by André Rui Graça

submission deadline 18 Nov 2026 | Viewed by 400 | Submission Open

Keywords: film studies; creative and cultural industries; film and history; media studies

(This special issue belongs to the Section Film and New Media)

Conditions of Transcultural Curating: Ecology, Decoloniality, and Global Exhibition Practices

edited by Marianna Tsionki

submission deadline 30 Nov 2026 | Viewed by 708 | Submission Open

Keywords: transcultural curating; ecological aesthetics; decolonial exhibition practices; global art circulation; more-than-human perspectives

Relationships Between Biological Diversity and Art: Exploring the Intersection

edited by

Jordi López-Pujol

, Aixa Ofelia Rivero-Guerra and Estrella Alfaro Saiz

submission deadline 30 Nov 2026 | Viewed by 562 | Submission Open

Keywords: artistic expressions; biodiversity conservation; design; ecocriticism; illustration; motifs; symbology; contemporary art

Ontological Investigations in Visual Art Studies

edited by Lampo Leong and

Junping Liu

submission deadline 30 Nov 2026 | Viewed by 402 | Submission Open

Keywords: digital and AI art; immersive installations; contemporary ink; formal elements in visual art; technological innovation in art; ontological approaches in visual art studies; formalistic aesthetics; spiritual expression in art

Interdisciplinary Approaches from Visual Studies to New Art Histories

edited by

Ana María Cuesta Sánchez

and

Ángel Pazos-López

submission deadline 15 Dec 2026 | Viewed by 34 | Submission Open

Keywords: visual studies; iconology; art theory; visual anthropology; visual media; interdisciplinarity; digital art history

(This special issue belongs to the Section Visual Arts)

Synagogue Architecture and Art: New Horizons

edited by

Ilia Rodov

and

Sergey R. Kravtsov

submission deadline 20 Dec 2026 | Viewed by 461 | Submission Open

Keywords: synagogue architecture; synagogue art; Jewish ritual spaces; Jewish art; ritual architecture and art

(This special issue belongs to the Section Visual Arts)

Anxiety and Influence: Rethinking Western Art Music in the 21st Century

edited by Erinn E. Knyt

submission deadline 30 Dec 2026 | Viewed by 356 | Submission Open

Keywords: adaptation; globalism; 21st century; western art music; artificial intelligence; musical canon

(This special issue belongs to the Section Musical Arts and Theatre)

Digital Technologies in Visual Arts: Algorithms, AI, and Immersive Media

edited by

Liang Tan

and

Amic G. Ho

submission deadline 31 Dec 2026 | Viewed by 757 | Submission Open

Keywords: digital technologies; visual arts; algorithms; computational Intelligence; digital aesthetics; immersive media

(This special issue belongs to the Section Visual Arts)

Latin American Photography

edited by Nathanial Eli Gardner and Carmen Fernandez Galán Montemayor

submission deadline 31 Dec 2026 | Viewed by 311 | Submission Open

Keywords: Latin American photography; visual theory; visual literacy; semiotics and photography; text and image

(This special issue belongs to the Section Visual Arts)

Theatre Symptoms (Practices)—Between Avant-Garde and VR/AI

edited by

Mischa Twitchin

submission deadline 5 Jan 2027 | Viewed by 148 | Submission Open

Keywords: theatre; avant-garde; virtual reality; GenAI; performance

(This special issue belongs to the Section Musical Arts and Theatre)

Art, Its Trade, and Cultural Influences of China

edited by Ying Wang

submission deadline 31 Jan 2027 | Viewed by 37 | Submission Open

Keywords: Cave 17 of Dunhuang; Black Stone; Mosuo; Jingdezhen

Jazz and the Visual Arts: Intersections of Musical Practice, Image, and Cultural Representation

edited by Sergio Pamies

submission deadline 28 Feb 2027 | Viewed by 127 | Submission Open

Keywords: jazz; visual culture; performance capture (photography and film); documentary and narrative film; stage and performance design; album and packaging design; african american visual arts; musician identity; experimental and afrofuturist jazz; global jazz visual expression; two-dimensional visual arts

(This special issue belongs to the Section Musical Arts and Theatre)

Revisioning Cinema: The History of Japan on Screen

edited by Sean O'Reilly

submission deadline 28 Feb 2027 | Viewed by 126 | Submission Open

Keywords: Japanese cinema; revisionism; film history; denialism

Islamic Art Past and Present in Aesthetic-Critical Perspective

edited by

Valerie Gonzalez

submission deadline 28 Feb 2027 | Viewed by 1 | Submission Open

Keywords: Islamic aesthetics; Islamic art; theological aesthetics; art theory; material religion; epistemology of Islamic art; Sufi art; decoloniality; Orientalism; modernism

Creativity Makes the Difference: Innovation Within Tradition in Ancient Egyptian Art

edited by Inmaculada Vivas Sainz

submission deadline 1 Mar 2027 | Viewed by 677 | Submission Open

Keywords: ancient Egypt; creativity; artists; innovation; artist’s role

Perspectives of Acoustics

edited by

Adam Rosiński

submission deadline 1 Mar 2027 | Viewed by 368 | Submission Open

Keywords: psychoacoustics; auditory perception; architectural acoustics; sound art; immersive technologies; audio engineering; ambisonics; VR/AR audio; sound aesthetics; music production

The Study of Animation Art

edited by Daniela Sirbu

submission deadline 1 Mar 2027 | Viewed by 303 | Submission Open

Keywords: animation aesthetics; animation history; animation theory; animation narrative; immersive animation; interactive animation; game animation; projection mapping; AR; VR; visual effects

Film at the Crossroads of Media and Art

edited by

Bruno Mendes da Silva

Alexandre Oliveira Martins

Hugo Martins

and Pedro Pais Correia

submission deadline 30 Mar 2027 | 1 articles | Viewed by 892 | Submission Open

Keywords: film and media art; interactive film; expanded cinema; post-cinema; intermediality; digital film aesthetics; cinematic installation; transmedia storytelling; art and technology; hybrid moving image; contemporary film theory

(This special issue belongs to the Section Film and New Media)

Cinema and Censorship

edited by

Santiago Juan-Navarro

submission deadline 1 Apr 2027 | 1 articles | Viewed by 1112 | Submission Open

Keywords: cinema; censorship; film regulation; self-censorship; film history; global cinema; media governance; political cinema; authoritarian culture; digital platforms; OTT streaming; postcolonial cinema; gender and film

(This special issue belongs to the Section Film and New Media)

The Making of Art Markets: Collection, Display and Artistic Exchange from a Historical Perspective

edited by Luís Urbano Afonso, Adriana Turpin, Allan Madden and Filip Vermeylen

submission deadline 30 Apr 2027 | Viewed by 112 | Submission Open

Keywords: art markets; history of collecting; display; artistic exchange; decorative arts; material culture; consumption practices; cultural circulation; global art history; regional specialisation; art historiography

French Art and the Aesthetics of Power

edited by

Hector Reyes

submission deadline 1 Jun 2027 | Viewed by 152 | Submission Open

Keywords: French art; beyond absolutism; alternate histories of form; theories of periodization; material culture; decolonial histories; material culture

Site and Sight: The Significance of Place in Contemporary Art and Theory

edited by Vanessa Corby

submission deadline 1 Jun 2027 | Viewed by 106 | Submission Open

Keywords: site; place; spectacle; local; global; dwelling; human; non-human

(This special issue belongs to the Section Visual Arts)

Artivism—Affecting Change Through the Arts

edited by

Sophia Efstathiou

, Syrus Marcus Ware and

Libe García Zarranz

submission deadline 30 Jun 2027 | Viewed by 422 | Submission Open

Keywords: art; social challenges; social movements; affect; activism

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