Wexner Center for the Arts

On this day in history, two students were killed at Jackson State University in Mississippi. On May 14, 1970, city and state police confronted students protesting racism on campus. Shortly after midnight, the police opened fire at a dormitory, killing two of the students. Following the Kent State shootings by exactly 10 days, the killings at Jackson State, a historically Black college, were not reported on or memorialized in song like Kent State. The silence around these shootings in contrast to those at Kent State, and the role of memorials as sites of forgetting and remembering, are focal points for Naeem Mohaiemen's exhibition "Corinthians," now on view at the Wex. At the center of the exhibition is Mohaiemen's "Through a Mirror, Darkly" (2025), a three-channel film that choreographs a visual relationship of debate, friction, and disagreement between archival footage and contemporary ceremonies in Ohio, Mississippi, and New York. Exploring period artwork and engaging with the film’s unfolding discussion invites visitors to reflect on how, as Mohaiemen describes it, “the farther away we get in years, the hazier the many meanings of events in the mirror of memory become.” Learn more about the exhibition with the link in bio. On view through August 9. — Naeem Mohaiemen: Corinthians. Installation views at the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University, 2026.

SML @WexArts , November 6 SML brings its boundary-pushing sound through improvisation, groove, electronics, and jazz tradition. Experience an immersive night of performances from @sml.band —two sets, two dynamic sound experiences. SML November 6 | 7 & 9 PM 🎟️ Get tickets at wexarts.org with the link in bio.

Screening for Pride, catch this series of compelling outdoor sports films that explore LGBTQ+ identity and community. @nomanslandfilmfestival celebrates the full scope of athletes and adventurers by un-defining femininity in adventure, sport, conservation, and film since 2015. To join in Columbus’s Pride celebrations, we’re presenting this special program of four films that explore the nexus of queer identity and expression with outdoor sports like skiing and cycling. See the full lineup screening on June 16 with the link in bio. Look for another No Man’s Land touring program at the Wex on September 16!

It’s bleak girl summer 🥀 Kick off our bleak week series with Melancholia. The film follows the tension between two sisters, one of whom has just married, as they anticipate the arrival of a rogue planet on a close collision course with Earth. Screening in 35mm on June 4 at the start of Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair, presented in partnership with American Cinematheque. Melancholia (Lars von Trier, 2011) June 4 | 7 PM 🎟️ Get tickets at wexarts.org with the link in bio.

Join our team! Internship applications are open for the Autumn 2026–Spring 2027 academic year. 🔔 Start your experience in the arts at The Ohio State University's multidisciplinary, international laboratory for the exploration and advancement of contemporary art. Head to the link in bio to learn more and see the available positions. We can’t wait to work with you!

Looking for an artful way to celebrate important individuals in your life? Our galleries are open this weekend and are always free to visit! Whether you spend it with us or enjoy the weekend elsewhere, we hope you take time to share joy, creativity, and meaningful connection with your loved ones.

Performing this fall @WexArts in Mershon Auditorium — The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. 🎺 Featuring 15 of the finest jazz soloists and ensemble players today, experience a night of unforgettable big band sound as they perform arrangements by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Charles Mingus, and more! The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis 🗓️ October 6, 2026 | 7 PM 📍Mershon Auditorium | Columbus, OH 🎟️ Tickets on sale at wexarts.org with the link in bio.

Summer forecast: it’s looking bleak ⛅️ This June, we’re hosting Bleak Week presented in partnership with @am_cinematheque . Featuring a harrowing, yet powerful lineup of films spotlighting the dark sides of humanity, Bleak Week embraces a cinema of despair with screenings around the world! At the Wex, we're screening notable highlights like Melancholia (Lars von Trier, 2011), Beneath the Planet of the Apes (Ted Post, 1970), The Turin Horse (A torinói ló, Béla Tarr, 2011), Vagabond (Sans toit ni loi, Agnès Varda, 1985), and more! Bleak Week Jun 4–10 🎟️ Tickets sold separately for each film. See the lineup and get tickets with the link in bio.

Congratulations to the winners of the Ohio Shorts 2026 Jury Award and Audience Choice Award! 🏆 ➡️ Each year, our annual Ohio Shorts festival showcases Buckeye-made short films spanning documentary, animation, dramatic narrative, and more. Ohio Shorts features filmmakers of all ages across the state, providing them an opportunity to show their work @WexArts on the big screen. This year’s Jury Award was selected by celebrated writer Hanif Abdurraqib (@nifmuhammad ). The Audience Choice Award was voted on by the attendees of the 5/2 screening of Ohio Shorts. Congratulations to the winners! Jury Award Winner: Breakfast in Bed (Megan Azzolina, 2025) Audience Choice Award Winner: A Marker Story (Nick Waggoner, 2025) "It was a delight to spend so much time with these films, all of them, in some way or another, highlighting a specific experience of place, being, and belonging that was always expansive, sometimes humorous, sometimes heartbreaking. I was thankful for the opportunity, also, because as someone who loves Ohio deeply, I believe that there are as many possibilities for stories about this place as there are people who live here and make the state what it is, and it was wonderful to see some of that manifested in these films. I was also very fascinated and at times greatly moved by how all of these artists used the medium of the short film, which can be a difficult one to build a whole universe within, and in these films, I felt warmth, and familiarity, but I also felt the slowing down of time in service of rich storytelling, which is an achievement." —Hanif Abdurraqib

On this day in history, four students were killed at Kent State University when members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of protesters. In 1970, four students were killed on May 4 during a rally opposing the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia. The protest, deaths, and memories of that time, along with two far less well known crisis moments from May 1970, are explored in Naeem Mohaiemen's exhibition "Corinthians," now on view at the Wex. At the center of the exhibition, Mohaiemen's three-channel film "Through a Mirror, Darkly" (2025) contrasts the memorialization of the Kent State University deaths with the silence around the shootings at Jackson State College, a historically Black college in Mississippi, where two students were killed on May 14. It also examines a moment of manipulated conflict between workers and students during the Hard Hat Riot in Wall Street, New York City on May 8. “Corinthians” explores the act of seeing a past event through the hazy view of trauma, time, and memory. It implies moral bewilderment without naming guilt or heroism. Along with the film, rarely seen works from Ohio institutions’ collections have been chosen by Mohaiemen and Wex curators to broaden the vision of the era’s intermingling of conflict, inequity, bravery, and change. Learn more about the exhibition with the link in bio. — Through a Mirror, Darkly by Naeem Mohaiemen. Commissioned in partnership by the Wexner Center for the Arts. Commissioned and produced by @artangel_ldn . In partnership with @filmvidumbrella . Naeem Mohaiemen, Through A Mirror, Darkly, 2025, at Albany House, London. © Naeem Mohaiemen. Courtesy of Artangel. Photograph: Thierry Bal for Artangel

It’s the last month to see Hew Locke: Passages @WexArts ! Explore works spanning more than three decades that focus on history, power, and cultural entanglement. Learn more and plan your visit with the link in bio. — Hew Locke: Passages. Installation views at the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University, 2026.

Happy International Jazz Day! 🎺🥁🎶 Announcing our lineup for the 2026-27 Jazz Season, featuring Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, SML, Alfredo Rodríguez Band with special guest Pedrito Martínez, and Cécile McLorin Salvant. Learn more about the season and get tickets with the link in bio. Members get early access to the jazz season. Sign up today to secure your early tickets.