Special Issues

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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The Arts and Urban Development
edited by
submission deadline 30 Jun 2025 | 1 articles | Viewed by 1428 | Submission Open
Keywords: urban arts; contemporary art; urban development; creative city; creative industries; culture-led regeneration; intangible cultural heritage
The Visual and Material Culture of Dance in South Asia
edited by Pika Ghosh and Ajay J. Sinha
submission deadline 30 Jun 2025 | Viewed by 497 | Submission Open
Keywords: media; movement; sound; touch; ephemerality; embodiment; phenomenology
Traumatic Tales: Creative Representations of Difficult Pasts
edited by Beata Batorowicz and Kate Cantrell
submission deadline 30 Jun 2025 | Viewed by 310 | Submission Open
Keywords: art; trauma; trauma-informed care; narrative; storytelling; self-care
Contemporary Visual Culture in Conflict Zones and Contested Territories
edited by Ronit Milano
submission deadline 30 Jul 2025 | 1 articles | Viewed by 1913 | Submission Open
Keywords: contestation; war; visual culture
Art Market
edited by Steven Adams
submission deadline 31 Jul 2025 | 2 articles | Viewed by 2984 | Submission Open
Keywords: art; market; commodification; cultural heritage; resistance; globalism; aestheticization; early modern; modernism
Art from the Medieval Mediterranean: A Critical View
edited by Justine M. Andrews
submission deadline 31 Jul 2025 | Viewed by 681 | Submission Open
Keywords: Mediterranean; art history; medieval; Byzantine; Islamic; Jewish
Medieval and Early Modern Finger Rings from Christian and Jewish Contexts submission deadline 7 Aug 2025 | 3 articles | Viewed by 13755 | Submission Open
Al-Bustān: Recreational Estates in the Islamic West and Sicily—Architectures and Spaces of Prestige as Symbols of Power
edited by and Julio Navarro Palazón
submission deadline 31 Aug 2025 | 1 articles | Viewed by 4152 | Submission Open
Keywords: Al-Bustān; belvedere; qubba; botanical gardens; Nymphaeum; pools
Portraiture in the Arts of China
edited by Shane McCausland and Mariana Zegianini
submission deadline 31 Aug 2025 | Viewed by 593 | Submission Open
Keywords: China; art; visual culture; portraiture; gender; ethnicity; subjectivity
Creating Musical Experiences
edited by Róisín Blunnie and Orla Flanagan
submission deadline 15 Sep 2025 | Viewed by 300 | Submission Open
Keywords: music performance; artistic programming; concert design; curating musical experiences; historical and contemporary performance design; collaborative creativity and performance
On Screen Arts—the Arts of the Past in Contemporary Mass Media
edited by Sharon Khalifa-Gueta
submission deadline 15 Sep 2025 | Viewed by 287 | Submission Open
Keywords: cinema; television; reception; art; history; transformation
Medieval Art and Music between Heritage, Modernity, and Multi-Media
edited by
submission deadline 30 Sep 2025 | 2 articles | Viewed by 4751 | Submission Open
Keywords: Medieval art; music; poetry; acoustics; liturgy; worship
The Impact of the Visual Arts on Technology
edited by and
submission deadline 30 Sep 2025 | Viewed by 724 | Submission Open
Keywords: visual arts; philosophy of technology; technoaesthetics; philiosophy of art; speculative inquiry; cosmotechnics; dispotif; critical art practice
(This special issue belongs to the Section Visual Arts)
Early Modern Global Materials, Materiality, and Material Culture
edited by Michelle Moseley-Christian
submission deadline 30 Sep 2025 | Viewed by 576 | Submission Open
Keywords: early modern; global; materiality; material culture; materials; sensory object; temporality; haptic response; physical object; art history
Myths in Art, XV–XVII Centuries
edited by Robert Huber
submission deadline 30 Sep 2025 | Viewed by 483 | Submission Open
Keywords: alchemy; allegory; astrology; neo-Platonism; Hermeticism; Renaissance painting; prisca theologia; mythology; humanism; magic
The Detailed Study of Films: Adjusting Attention submission deadline 3 Oct 2025 | Viewed by 794 | Submission Open
Keywords: analysis and interpretation; art and context; attention; conscience; film studies
(This special issue belongs to the Section Film and New Media)
Film and Visual Studies: The Digital Unconscious
edited by Tom Conley
submission deadline 3 Oct 2025 | Viewed by 443 | Submission Open
Keywords: psychoanalysis; visual studies; digital process; media; mediation
The Visual Arts and Sustainable Agriculture in Britain
edited by Rupert Ashmore
submission deadline 15 Oct 2025 | Viewed by 492 | Submission Open
Keywords: environmental arts; farming; food production; communities; rural economies; arts research; film and photography
(This special issue belongs to the Section Visual Arts)
Sound, Space, and Creativity in Performing Arts
edited by
submission deadline 20 Oct 2025 | 1 articles | Viewed by 578 | Submission Open
Keywords: musical acoustics; electroacoustic; sound engineering; music production; digital composition and orchestration; computer music composition; digital audio workstation; sound design; dubbing; digital technologies in music education; auditory image analysis; cognitive science; perception; listening; psychoacoustics; music theory; composition; AI in music
From Craft to Code and Back Again: Rethinking Art, Materiality and Exhibition Practices in the 21st Century
edited by Elena Papadaki and Eleanor Dare
submission deadline 30 Oct 2025 | Viewed by 420 | Submission Open
Keywords: exhibition practices; materiality; physical/virtual environments; curating; symbiotic networks; contemporary creative practices; new technologies; curating; visual communication
Art and Visual Culture—Social, Cultural and Environmental Impacts
edited by Mika Markus Merviö
submission deadline 31 Oct 2025 | 1 articles | Viewed by 2673 | Submission Open
Keywords: impacts of art; interpretations of art; values; meanings; environment and art; politics and art
What is ‘Art’ Cinema?
edited by Colette Balmain
submission deadline 31 Oct 2025 | Viewed by 1094 | Submission Open
Keywords: film studies; art cinema and the auteur; independent and experimental cinema; the blockbuster versus the contemplative; economies of value; aesthetics and the image; global cinema; slow cinema
New Discoveries in the Art of the Bronze Age
edited by Marie N. Pareja
submission deadline 31 Oct 2025 | Viewed by 264 | Submission Open
Keywords: art history; archaeology; Bronze Age; ancient; material culture
Active Women in the Art Market: 1950–2020. Mapping Gallerists, Collectors, Maecenas, Auctioneers, Curators in Emerging Markets submission deadline 15 Nov 2025 | Viewed by 1196 | Submission Open
Keywords: art market; Global South; feminism; female studies; women gallerists; women art dealers; women collectors; women artists; women curators; gender equality
Aesthetics in Contemporary Cities submission deadline 30 Nov 2025 | 5 articles | Viewed by 8366 | Submission Open
Keywords: landscapes of urban spaces; public realm aesthetics; aesthetics in the urban context; street art; aesthetics perception
Renaissance Rhapsody: Miscellany and Multimodality in Early Modern Europe
edited by Catharine Ingersoll
submission deadline 30 Nov 2025 | Viewed by 632 | Submission Open
Keywords: multimodality; interdisciplinarity; Early Modern Europe
Enhancing Roman Wall Painting: Innovative Artisans, Techniques, and Spaces
edited by Lisa Hughes
submission deadline 30 Nov 2025 | Viewed by 295 | Submission Open
Keywords: Roman; wall painting; artists; materials; techniques; visual culture; spatial environments; material culture
(This special issue belongs to the Section Visual Arts)
Social Engagement and Public Art: Discourses and Praxis
edited by and Deniz Ünsal
submission deadline 30 Nov 2025 | Viewed by 71 | Submission Open
Keywords: socially engaged arts; public art; artivism; public engagement; ethics
The European Avant-Garde(s) and Technologies: Unfinished Modernity and the Idea of Tékhnē—the One Hundred Years’ Revolution, 1850–1950
edited by
submission deadline 1 Dec 2025 | Viewed by 371 | Submission Open
Keywords: Té khnē; defamiliarization; experimentalism; metaphoric technology; aesthetic device; biomechanics; humorism; constructivism; performative modernity; technopoetics; poetic Machines; avant-garde infrastructure
Landscape Spoliation
edited by
submission deadline 15 Dec 2025 | Viewed by 960 | Submission Open
Keywords: productive reuse; botanical and cultural luxuriance; modern and contemporary architecture; environmental design; landscape architecture; urban resilience; lost buildings
Film Music
edited by Nick Poulakis
submission deadline 31 Dec 2025 | 1 articles | Viewed by 3920 | Submission Open
Keywords: film music; film sound; cinema; musicology; film studies; cultural studies
Artist-Led Practice: Bridging Art and Life
edited by Julie Crawshaw
submission deadline 31 Dec 2025 | Viewed by 245 | Submission Open
Keywords: artist-led practice; John Dewey; aesthetics
The Antigone Effect: Art/Theory/Politics
edited by
submission deadline 31 Dec 2025 | Viewed by 234 | Submission Open
Keywords: antigone; contemporary art; film; critical theory; psychoanalysis; anti-democratic turn
Restitution Beyond Repatriation: Rethinking African Tangible Heritage in Twenty-First Century Museums
edited by
submission deadline 31 Dec 2025 | Viewed by 215 | Submission Open
Keywords: restitution; African art; museum; repatriation; decolonization
Contemporary Development of American Film
edited by Catherine L. Benamou and Philana Payton
submission deadline 2 Jan 2026 | Viewed by 318 | Submission Open
Keywords: biopics; film adaptation; film labor; social justice; independent cinema; exhibition practices; narrative form; queer/trans representation; marginalized filmmakers.; production geographies; race/gender/sexuality
Technology and Scenography in Film and Television: Crafting Visual Worlds
edited by Geraint D'Arcy
submission deadline 26 Jan 2026 | Viewed by 712 | Submission Open
Keywords: production design; film design; television design; production technologies; aesthetics; virtual production
Arts and Refugees: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Vol. 3)—the Global South submission deadline 30 Jan 2026 | Viewed by 766 | Submission Open
Keywords: arts; refugees; global south; inclusion; exclusion; racialization; intersectionality
Dance Objects
edited by and Anna Pakes
submission deadline 31 Jan 2026 | Viewed by 221 | Submission Open
Keywords: dance objects; ontology; materialism; visual culture; commodity; ephemera
Arts of Abolition and Liberation
edited by
submission deadline 28 Feb 2026 | Viewed by 603 | Submission Open
Keywords: abolition; liberation; anti-capitalism; socialism; communism; anarchism; protest; activism; leftism
Presence and Media
edited by Ken Feinstein
submission deadline 28 Feb 2026 | Viewed by 139 | Submission Open
Keywords: presence; new media; otherness; ethics; interaction; dialog
Situating Eurasia in Antiquity: Objects, Places and Interactions in the Western Scythian World
edited by
submission deadline 28 Feb 2026 | Viewed by 120 | Submission Open
Keywords: archaeology; Eurasian nomads; Hallstatt; Hillforts; Iron Age; material culture; Northern Black Sea region; Scythians
Bodies on Edge in a Globalized World
edited by Rebekah J. Kowal and Gerald Siegmund
submission deadline 1 Mar 2026 | Viewed by 166 | Submission Open
Keywords: exile; displacement; dislocation; dispersion; dispossession; embodiment; choreography; dance; performance; global; world
Rethinking Art History and Culture: Defining an Ecological Approach
edited by Claire Farago
submission deadline 31 Mar 2026 | Viewed by 114 | Submission Open
Keywords: study of planetary culture; intra-disciplinary collaboration; sociobiological synthesis (interrelationship of biological and social processes); nature/culture as a cultural construct; ecology; sustainability; connectivity; post-human/more than human; indigenous ontologies; ontoepistemology; performative; relationalities; (re)articulations; intra-activity
Music, Gesture, and Embodiment: New Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Gesture–Sound Studies
edited by
submission deadline 31 Mar 2026 | Viewed by 90 | 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
Animals and the Art Academy
edited by Rosemarie McGoldrick and
submission deadline 15 Apr 2026 | Viewed by 120 | Submission Open
Keywords: art; artist; animals; humans; ethics; academy; relational
Twenty-Five Years After Post-Black: Reframing Contemporary African American Art
edited by
submission deadline 1 May 2026 | Viewed by 34 | Submission Open
Keywords: African American Art; Contemporary Art; African Diaspora
Performative Imaging: Post-Digital Medialities in Contemporary Moving Image Practices
edited by Gabriel Menotti, and
submission deadline 31 May 2026 | Viewed by 111 | Submission Open
Keywords: performance; installation; moving image; embodiment; participation; environmental; spatiality; post-digital; archives
Human-Animal Interactions in Western Art
edited by
submission deadline 30 Jun 2026 | 1 articles | Viewed by 2676 | Submission Open
Keywords: human– animal interactions; art history; animal studies; Western art
The New Politics of Art: Artworks in an Age of Corporate Globalism
edited by Lenore Metrick-Chen
submission deadline 1 Jul 2026 | Viewed by 64 | Submission Open
Keywords: art; audience; alternative; politics; economics; activism; values; critical theory; equity; transformative; capitalism; resistance
Intersecting Dialogues: Contemporary Art and Architecture in the 21st Century
edited by Pablo Meninato and Gregory Marinic
submission deadline 1 Oct 2026 | Viewed by 66 | Submission Open
Keywords: contemporary art; architecture; interdisciplinarity; art theory; architecture theory
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