The 2026 LABA Theme: NAME
Become a LABA Fellow.
This year at LABA, we’ll dive into the magnetic power and subtle limits of names. In our experimental house of study, we’ll ask how the act of naming can both reveal and obscure truth; how words build the scaffolding of the worlds we live in; how a name can bless, bind, or transform.
Language is our most intimate art form – our bridge between imagination and existence. To name is to create form from chaos, to touch the invisible and make it known. Yet every name also conceals what it cannot contain.
Together, we’ll move between the cosmic and the personal: studying ancient texts on creation through speech, uncovering the mysteries of divine names – including the ineffable one we may not utter, and another that simply means The Name.We’ll reflect on how names shape destinies, how renaming can rewrite a story, and how the silence beyond words might hold its own revelation.
And, as always, we’ll talk, eat, drink, learn, and laugh in the lush, curious, and joyfully irreverent space that is LABA: A Laboratory for Jewish Culture.
We invite artists, culture makers, thinkers, and seekers to explore how language shapes your world – and to bring your voice, your vision, and perhaps even your name, into the conversation.
LABA BCN is part of an international collective of LABAs, all of which use classic Jewish texts to inspire the creation of art, culture, conversation, and community. The program began at the 14th Street Y in New York City 2007, and now has hubs in Buenos Aires, the Bay Area, Berlin, Paris and Barcelona.
LABA presents Judaism’s rich literary and intellectual tradition in a free and creative setting, so that these fertile stories and ideas spark new thought and creative work. The output from our laboratory hubs pushes the boundaries of what Jewish culture can be and what Jewish texts can teach.
For 2026, LABA BCN will select up to 10 fellows, a mix of visual artists, writers, dancers, musicians, actors, and other culture-makers, to study classic Jewish texts in a non-religious, open-minded, free-spirited, and emotionally, intellectually and physically accessible setting. The yearly curriculum is centered around a theme, and previous ones include Taboo, Beauty, Paradise, Eat, Mother, and Humor. The 2026 theme for all LABA locations will be NAME, and will be explored through writings from the Torah, Talmud, Mishnah, and Zohar alongside select contemporary texts.
LABA PROJECTS
LABA BCN fellows create new work in response to these texts. The process need not be a linear one; a line from text to project that others can easily trace. Instead, the texts serve as an opening to a new part of your psyche and creative process that leads you in new directions. The texts are fertilizers – not instruction manuals.
These works will be read, exhibited, and performed at the LABAlive showcase in late fall of 2026. Throughout the year, the LABA team will look for other ways to share fellows’ projects with the wider BCN community, and, whenever appropriate, through partnerships with cultural and ritual organizations.
LABA COMMUNITY
LABA fellows join an enriching and supportive community through the fellowship. In addition to the connections they form with their cohort, they will also have numerous opportunities to meet, inspire and be inspired by, support and be supported by, and potentially collaborate with local LABA fellows from other cohorts, and fellows from other LABA hubs including Berlin, Buenos Aires, Bay Area and New York.
FAQ FOR LABA BCN ARTIST FELLOW APPLICANTS
1.) Who can apply to LABA BCN?
Anyone who is curious about classic Jewish texts; wants to study them in a non-theological, non-moralistic, and non-academic manner; and has a desire to use ancient Jewish texts to enrich their creative endeavors. Maybe you’re a rabbi, or maybe you’ve never read a single page of the Torah in your whole life. It doesn’t matter. Everyone will be welcome as long as they are up to approaching texts in this fashion. Also, LABA BCN defines culture-makers very broadly. This includes artists, dancers, actors, musicians, composers, writers, dancers, directors, as well as chefs, landscape architects, video-game designers, and more.
2.) What kind of time obligation is LABA BCN?
There will be nine in-person study sessions from January through June 2026. They are held on Tuesdays, 18:00-21:30, at Casa Adret, in the Gothic quarter of Barcelona.
Study sessions are held in English. Spanish, Catalan, and Hebrew-friendly.
Beginning in July, we will take a summer break during which fellows will have time to work on their LABA BCN projects.
We will return to Casa Adret in early fall, when we will have more project workshops. In late fall, we will host two LABAlive showcases during which fellows will share their LABA projects with the public.
3.) Do LABA BCN projects have to be about Jewish texts or Jewish themes?
Not necessarily. The goal of LABA BCN is for the ideas, feelings, and contradictions of Jewish texts to inspire new work. Sometimes this yields work that is identifiably Jewish, other times it does not.
4.) Is LABA BCN a paid fellowship?
Yes! LABA BCN fellows will receive a 1000€ study stipend to attend the study sessions. There will also be additional production support available for the LABAlive events or public art projects or performances. In addition, LABA BCN will promote our fellows on our website, social media, and through our connections with other cultural institutions around Barcelona-and beyond.
Applications close – December 5th, 2025
Program begins January 2026.