> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.unknowndivide.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Nelson-Atkins Plans Van Gogh, Centre Pompidou and Abolition Shows - URL: https://www.unknowndivide.com/nelson-atkins-van-gogh-centre-pompidou-photography-abolition/ - Published: 2026-10-29T11:06:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-29T11:13:12.000Z - Description: Kansas City's Nelson-Atkins has a big run ahead: Photography and Abolition in May 2027, Centre Pompidou masterpieces that fall, and a Van Gogh exhibition in 2028. - Author: unknowndivide staff - Tags: Culture, #surfacing Kansas City is about to become a serious art trip. The [Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art](https://nelson-atkins.org/?ref=unknowndivide.com) has [announced its 2027 and 2028 seasons](https://nelson-atkins.org/surprising-new-insights-into-vincent-van-gogh-first-stop-of-centre-pompidou-tour-and-rare-photos-from-abolitionist-movement-lead-upcoming-exhibitions/?ref=unknowndivide.com), and the lineup reads like a wish list: a major photography show about the fight to end slavery, the first stop of a touring exhibition from Paris's [Centre Pompidou](https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/?ref=unknowndivide.com), and a fresh look at Vincent van Gogh and his friends. Director and CEO Julián Zugazagoitia says the goal goes beyond hanging famous pictures. In his words, the shows will add "new dimensions to our understanding of them," by questioning old ideas about modern art, revealing new insights into the fight to end slavery, and uncovering what inspired some of history's best known artists. ## Photography and Abolition, May 8 to September 5, 2027 First up is Photography and Abolition, organized by the Nelson-Atkins. It looks at how photography, then a brand new technology, fueled the abolitionist movement in the decades before and through the Civil War. The show gathers more than 200 works from nearly 40 major collections across the country, many never shown together before. Expect 19th century portraits of Frederick Douglass, John Brown, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Sojourner Truth, along with many other people who fought to end slavery. The museum will also put a rare daguerreotype on view for the first time, believed to be the earliest known image of enslaved African Americans with cotton. The historical images sit in conversation with contemporary work. Photographs by Hank Willis Thomas, Carrie Mae Weems, Dawoud Bey and Nona Faustine are included, and [Isaac Julien's](https://www.isaacjulien.com/?ref=unknowndivide.com) five screen video installation Lessons of the Hour makes its Midwest debut. ## French Connections, November 13, 2027 to February 27, 2028 Later in 2027, the Nelson-Atkins becomes the first stop for French Connections: Masterpieces from Centre Pompidou. The show brings nearly 100 works in a range of media from the Paris museum's collection, and for many of them it will be the first time they have been seen in the United States. The exhibition pushes back on the familiar claim that New York became the center of the art world after World War II. Instead, it makes the case that France, with Paris at its core, stayed a vital hub for modern art, and it tells the post war story through many connected histories of exchange across the Atlantic. ## Van Gogh, May 20 to September 4, 2028 The 2028 headliner is an original exhibition conceived by the Nelson-Atkins. It explores how Van Gogh and his circle drew on late Medieval and early Renaissance art, which fascinated many in 1880s Paris, to find new paths in their own work. With loans from major public and private collections worldwide, it promises major works by Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat and Émile Bernard, among others, some of which have not been in the United States in more than twenty years. Dr. Cornelia Homburg, the Van Gogh scholar advising the project, says that while his work is well known, "there are still extraordinary new insights to be gained." ## A museum in motion The museum is changing too. A renovation of its Bloch Building is expected to be finished this spring, the first step in a connected campus project led by New York architects [WEISS/MANFREDI](https://www.weissmanfredi.com/?ref=unknowndivide.com). The plan adds a new wing with classrooms, more galleries and better accessibility. ## Why it matters This one is Surfacing. Three shows this strong, each with real new research behind it, put Kansas City on the map for the next two years. For more big museum dates to plan around, see [Picasso at the Denver Art Museum](https://www.unknowndivide.com/picasso-magician-denver-art-museum-october-2027/) and [Charley Harper in Cincinnati](https://www.unknowndivide.com/charley-harper-creatures-wild-and-tame-cincinnati-art-museum/).