What’s in store at SNF Nostos 2026?
SNF Nostos 2026, a celebration of 30 years of SNF grantmaking putting “humanity at the core,” comes to Greece from June 21 – 28 with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) in Athens as its homebase. It’s a week of constant motion that also offers moments for deliberation and quiet reflection, one where we’ll build our own schedules, then all come together for moving and enlightening shared experiences.
It opens and closes with can’t-help-but-dance music, from a performance by David Byrne on the opening night to a closing DJ party, with a concert by Gorillaz and more music along the way. Events will run the gamut from a participatory jury trial of AI to simple words of wisdom from the Dalai Lama in a documentary screening, from inspiring performances by Greek National Operaballet professionals to, shall we say… “aspiring” vocal performances by the audience ourselves. We’ll revel in the shared endorphins of the SNF Nostos Run and recreate the soaring heights and crushing defeats of the World Cup in our own soccer tournament. Unexpected and interactive pop-ups, many of them AI-inflected, will enliven the SNFCC between scheduled events while a tech-free café will offer a space for digital detox.
More than anything, SNF Nostos 2026 celebrates three decades of work by our amazing grantee-partners, and from Monday through Thursday, we’re passing the mic to them to spark conversation related to their fascinating work. These sessions will be hosted at four “houses” reflecting SNF’s grantmaking pillars: the Houses of Arts & Culture, Civics & Education, Health & Sports, and Future (“Social Welfare,” another of our pillars, permeates all of these). Each house will take its turn in the spotlight on one of those four days with a more extensive slate of events.
The conference, which is curated together with our close partners at the journalism nonprofit iMEdD (incubator for Media Education and Development) along with input from the SNF Nostos Youth Advisory Committee, culminates on Friday as we all come together for a series of SNF-led signature sessions on transformative efforts in physical and mental health, developments in AI and geopolitics, and deeply personal stories and values, as well as an SNF Dialogues discussion employing a novel participatory framework.
Throughout the week, dive deeper into SNF’s grantmaking in an immersive map installation—or take a field trip to see it in action.
We hope you’ll be able to join us. Stay tuned for details coming at the end of January!
