I Cover Art and Culture for a Living — These Are the 12 Most Inspiring Events to Tick Off Your Bucket List This Year

If you have spent the first four weeks of the year wondering, "what cultural events take place in 2025?", you're in luck. Spanning nine different countries and 12 cities across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, my curated edit of the most inspiring happenings in 2025 leaves only one thing left to do — get them in your diary so that they can inform your next getaway.

If it's true that passion tourism — the idea of booking holidays coinciding with cultural events we simply cannot bear to miss — is having a moment, as I discovered in drafting my Travel Trends 2025 Report, then I can only expect these 2025 events to become an integral part of some of our readers' art and design-led global itineraries. Because booking a stay at one of the best design hotels isn't enough to discover what's out there to explore this year, and these 2025 events offer an exclusive, interdisciplinary look at the future.

From Californian immersions into refined examples of mid-century architecture to the "living laboratory" of Expo 2025 Osaka, and the liberating visions gathered in the newest edition of LagosPhoto Festival, catch a glimpse into this year's zeitgeist below.

February

1. Modernism Week. Palm Springs, CA, US

Launching on February 13, the 20th-anniversary edition of Modernism Week brings an 11-day marathon of world-class mid-century modern architecture, art, interior, and landscape design to the legendary Palm Springs, California. An interdisciplinary celebration of desert modernism, the festival will see over 400 coinciding events — from guided tours of some of the most iconic local homes and explorations of the area's most culturally vibrant neighborhoods and historical landmarks to lectures, panel discussions, film screenings, and workshops to town — in what is set to be one of 2025's most memorable events for design aficionados.

Among the residences opening their doors to the public this year are the Albert Frey-designed West House, a 1954 villa formerly owned by the original Batman, actor Adam West, more recently remodeled by Michelle Boudreau Design; architect Stan Sackley and designer Steve Chase's co-authored 1970s masterpiece, The Sackley Chase Sensation; and The Goldberg residence, a 1962 mid-century jewel by William F. Cody and Arthur Elrod.

February 13-23. Various locations, Palm Springs, California, United States. Book your tickets

2. Frieze Los Angeles. Los Angeles, CA, US

Planning on attending Modernism Week? Consider booking yourself a room at one of the best Los Angeles hotels to get the most of California's February creative frenzy. Returning to Santa Monica Airport for its sixth edition, Frieze Los Angeles 2025 will bring a bespoke structure designed for the occasion by Kulapat Yantrasast's architectural studio WHY to life in a three-days-long dive into the latest in contemporary art. Reuniting more than 100 established and emerging galleries from over 20 countries, this year's fair strives to reflect "the vibrancy and diversity of Los Angeles and beyond" by centering creativity, activism, and community, explains Christine Messineo, Director of Americas at Frieze.

The large-scale artistry of Lita Albuquerque, Madeline Hollander, Greg Ito, and Ozzie Juarez will take center stage in the Art Production Fund-curated group exhibition Inside Out. Elsewhere, the Frieze Los Angeles Impact Prize, developed with the Center for Art & Advocacy, will award a previously incarcerated artist whose work attempts to shift public perception of societal criminal narratives and racial equity with a $25,000 bursary and a presentation at the fair. Meanwhile, solo shows by talents including Eamon Ore-Giron, April Bey, Patrick Eugène, and Tamara Gonzales will absorb the audience in kaleidoscopic human-divine conversations, science fiction-informed reinterpretations of Bahamian culture, Afrofuturism, and queerness, melancholic reflections on family and migration, and the striking textile traditions of Mesoamerica, respectively. My only advice? Don't miss out.

February 20-23. Santa Monica Airport, 3233 Donald Douglas Loop S, Santa Monica, CA 90405, United States. Book your tickets

March

3. TEFAF Maastricht. Maastricht, NL

The world's premier fair for fine art, antiques, and design, TEFAF Maastricht's 2025 edition will see more than 260 affluent dealers flock to the South Netherlands city from some 20 countries in a 7,000-year-long journey through art history. From legendary Old Master paintings and classical antiquities to 20th-century design, photography, and contemporary art, the evolution of human artistry is charted in its most comprehensive definition at The European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF), which nears its 38th edition.

Among the highlights of this year's event are a one-of-a-kind micromosaic of the Roman Forum, presented by dealer Alessandra Di Castro and with an estimated price of $190,000; gallery shows by trailblazing institutions like Galerie Marcilhac, Morentz, David Gill Gallery, Friedman Benda, and Galleria Continua; and exclusive conferences on the state of the arts today led by leading industry insiders. Head to TEFAF Maastricht's website for the complete fair program.

March 15-20. MECC, Forum 100, 6229 GV Maastricht, Netherlands. Book your tickets

April

4. Milan Design Week. Milan, IT

As the world's foremost event for interiors insiders, every year the return of Milan Design Week drives around half a million international visitors to Italy's creative capital for a multisensory and intergenerational look at the very best in design. Coinciding with the acclaimed furniture fair Salone del Mobile, which will run at Rho Fiera Milano between April 8 and April 13, and Fuorisalone, the multi-location calendar of exhibitions that accompanies the event, Milan Design Week will see the city in full swing between exclusive showroom openings, public installations, panel talks, and parties spread across key artistic districts such as Brera, Durini, 5VIE, Porta Venezia, Sarpi, Tortona, and Isola.

Although much of this year's edition agenda is yet to be unveiled, I am especially looking forward to witnessing Caterina Mosca and Valerio Castelli's curatorial project MoscaPartners revive the inner cloister of Palazzo Litta through Variations (April 6-13) — a collective exhibition of site-specific works that highlight the importance of public space as a platform for constructive dialogue, inspiration, and community building. At its ninth edition, Alcova, Valentina Ciuffi and Joseph Grima's nomadic showcase of cutting-edge design, recently mentioned in Nina Yashar's guide to Milan as one of Milan Design Week's yearly standout appointments, will bring the next generation of innovators to the northern Milanese suburb of Varedo. Taking over two new locations, a former factory and a series of ancient greenhouses, besides last year's Villa Bagatti Valsecchi and Villa Borsani, the 2025 edition of Alcova Milano promises to be even more immersive and rooted in the territory than usual. Elsewhere in the city, Fabbrica del Vapore will pay homage to the chameleonic practice of Italian artist, designer, and architect Nanda Vigo in Sineddoche (April 7-13).

April 6-13. Various locations, Milan, IT. Book your tickets (Salone del Mobile)

5. Expo 2025. Osaka, JP

It has been exactly ten years since Expo 2015 Milan took place, but I still remember my visit to it as one of the most mesmerizing experiences of my teenage years. I was just 16 at the time, but wandering around its 145 national pavilions provided me with a transformative introduction to the world’s furthermost countries, their stories, heritage, and gastronomic traditions. Themed Designing Future Society for Our Lives, Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan couldn’t feel more relevant. Through its sub-themes, including Saving Lives, Empowering Lives, and Connecting Lives, this monumental showcase will shed light on viable solutions to some of today's most pressing challenges, from climate change and its implications for the international community to armed conflicts, migration, and the shift towards sustainable energy and agriculture.

Unfolding on Yumeshima, an artificial island in Osaka Bay, Expo 2025 will leverage the power of art, architecture, design, science, technology, and culture to probe new societal paths and bring visitors closer together. Conceived as a 'people's living lab', it was envisioned to serve as a testing ground for the future of humanity, removing the boundaries between individual nations to pave the way for inclusive civic engagement and innovation. Through its numerous immersive exhibitions, starting with those hosted within this edition's pavilions, cultural performances, and interactive displays, the event will simultaneously uplift, inspire, and entertain, also giving you yet another reason to visit Japan's second-largest city.

April 13-October 13. 1 Chome, Konohana Ward, Osaka, 554-0044, Japan. Book your tickets (Expo 2025)

6. Setouchi Triennale. Seto Inland Sea, JP

As if Expo 2025 wasn't enough to convince you to hop on a plane to Nippon, the latest edition of the Setouchi Triennale, a celebrated contemporary art festival held every three years on the 11 islands of the Seto Inland Sea, will dot the Japanese landscape in awe-inspiring site-specific works by local and global artists (April 18-November 9).

With over 60 participants, the triennial, whose activations will span islands and coastal areas in Kagawa, Hiroshima, Okayama, as well as other locations, seeks to cement this region's reputation as the new creative thinktank of Japan, alleviating the hardships of its past through otherworldly creations. Among the names confirmed for the forthcoming edition are Thai textile trailblazer Jakkai Siributr, South Korean installation innovator Park Ji-hyun, and Golden Lion-winning New Zealand artist Sarah Hudson.

April 18-May 25. August 1-August 31. October 3-November 9. Various locations, Seto Inland Sea, Japan. Book your tickets (Setouchi Triennale)

May

7. Biennale Architettura 2025. Venice, IT

Titled Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective, the 19th edition of Venice's Biennale Architettura, one of the most anticipated events on the cultural calendar of every architecture and design amateur, engages with questions similar to the ones at the core of Osaka's forthcoming Expo. Curated by Carlo Ratti and overseen by the biennial's President, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, the storied international exhibition, returning to Venice's Giardini and Arsenale and other locations across the city between May 10 and November 23, "will be about the built environment and the many disciplines that shape it," explain the event's organizers. While certainly keeping architecture at its heart, the new Biennale Architettura will examine its role as part of "an extended sphere that integrates art, engineering, biology, data science, social and political sciences, planetary systems sciences, and other disciplines, linking each and all of them to the materiality of urban space," add the two.

Looking at it as one of the main agents behind the skyrocketing rise of atmospheric emissions, the showcase will prompt visitors to not only reflect on the implications of human anthropization — or the man-made transformation of the natural landscape to the benefit of our industrial and societal evolution — but also to search for innovative ways of defusing the environmental emergency. This year's festival will also see the comeback of Biennale College Architettura, a coinciding exhibition dedicated to the work of students, graduate students, and emerging practitioners under 30. Its Living Lab project will bring interactive forms of intelligence to different districts of Venice, while an unparalleled submission forum, Space for Ideas, will invite collective participation in the shaping of the biennial.

May 10-November 23. Various locations, Venice, Italy. Book your tickets

June

8. Art Basel. Basel, CH

Die-hard art lovers, curators, and collectors won't need a lecture on the relevance of Art Basel. Still, if you have read this far and landed on this article in the first place, chances are you looking for the best 2025 events to inform your next move — so forgive the repetition, arty readers! Coming to Messe Basel between June 19 and June 22, the latest edition of Art Basel 2025 will reunite over 200 pioneering galleries from five continents for a total of more than 4,000 spotlighted artists. Like in the case of Art Basel Miami (December 5-7), the fair is divided into multiple sections, including Galleries, where global art institutions are presented, Feature, a curated spotlight of historical and contemporary works by acclaimed artists, Statements, dedicated to solo presentations by rising talents, and Edition, a printed matter celebration with limited-edition prints and multiples by celebrated artists and publishers. Concurrent with Art Basel 2025, the 30th edition of Liste Art Fair Basel (June 16-22), born to support younger galleries and creatives, will immerse the public in the visions of the new avant-garde, while Photo Basel (June 17-22) will chart the latest innovations in photographic art.

June 16-22. Exhibition Center Basel, Messepl. 10, 4005 Basel, Switzerland. Book your tickets (Liste Art Fair)

June 17-22. Volkshaus Basel. Rebgasse 12-14, 4058 Basel, Switzerland. Book your tickets (Photo Basel)

June 19-22. Exhibition Center Basel, Messepl. 10, 4005 Basel, Switzerland. Book your tickets (Art Basel 2025)

September

9. São Paulo Biennial. São Paulo, BR

In the 36th edition of the São Paulo Biennial, Not All Travellers Walk Roads — Of Humanity as Practice, the curatorial team comprised of Keyna Eleison, Alya Sebti, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Henriette Gallus, Anna Roberta Goetz, and Thiago de Paula Souza wants us to ponder the nature of human relationships and the way we "understand and engage with each other". Titled after Afrobrazilian poet Conceição Evaristo's Da calma e do silêncio ("Of calm and silence") poem, the collective showcase will rely on contributions by 64 international and local artists to explore what it means to be human across a variety of disciplines, asking scholars, activists, and cultural practitioners to feed into the conversation.

Free to visit throughout its four-month duration, "this project not only reaffirms the Biennial's role as a space for reflection and dialogue on the most pressing issues of our time, but also demonstrates the institutional commitment of the Fundação to promoting artistic practices in a way that is accessible and relevant to diverse audiences," said Andrea Pinheiro, president of the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo. Center around three key focuses, namely rethinking the dynamics of space and time, fostering a reflective view of oneself through the perspective of others, and nurturing spaces for meetings and dialogue, the 36th São Paulo Biennial will be open up to the world and its stories also thanks to Invocations — a globetrotting program of talks, performances, and lectures landing in different locations of Marrakech (November 14-15), Guadeloupe (February 11-13), and Tokyo (April 12-13) in the months after its opening.

September 6-January 11, 2026. Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, Av. Pedro Álvares Cabral, s/n - Ibirapuera, São Paulo - SP, 04094-000, Brazil. Plan your visit

October

10. Frieze London and Frieze Masters. London, UK

No roundup of the best 2025 events for culture-obsessed globetrotters would ever be complete without a reference to Frieze London and Frieze Masters. Now at their 22nd and 12th edition, respectively, the coinciding global fairs represent the perfect opportunity to dive deep into the past, present, and future of art through the experimentation of its most revolutionary protagonists. Like every year, Frieze London's interdisciplinary offering will be divided into a Focus, Editions, Galleries, and Artist-to-Artist sectors, with emerging talents, exclusively crafted prints and monographs, leading institutions, and intergenerational artistic conversations stealing the show in each of them. Meanwhile, Frieze Masters will allow visitors to travel back in time through curated showcases spotlighting some of the world's more dated art expressions, including seminal masterpieces spanning several millennia. Elsewhere in The Regent's Park, the towering installations of Frieze Sculpture (17 September-November 2) will guide passersby to an unusual, fascinating discovery of its greenery.

October 15-19. The Regent's Park, London, United Kingdom. Book your tickets

11. LagosPhoto Festival. Lagos, NG

LagosPhoto Festival, Nigeria’s premier international photography event, marks its transition to a biennial format with its 15th edition, launching October 2025. Curated by founder Azu Nwagbogu, the mind behind Benin’s inaugural national pavilion at last year’s Venice Biennale, the festival will explore the expansive theme of Incarceration, delving into the notion of confinement from a physical, intellectual, psychological, and social perspective. Platforming commissioned works from a diverse group of artists, including Beninese photographer Ishola Akpo, Californian artist Adrian L. Burrell, and Ghanaian filmmaker and image-maker Carlos Idun-Tawiah, the 2025 iteration of LagosPhoto Festival allows for deeper engagement with its overarching theme. This is made possible by the comprehensive public program that supports its exhibitions, encompassing anything from workshops and artist presentations to discussions, and land art outdoor installations. Rather than merely addressing the theme of Incarceration, the showcase channels histories of redemption and liberation through the audiovisual explorations of its championed talents.

October 27-January 23, 2026. Various locations, Lagos, Nigeria. Plan your visit

December

12. Kochi-Muziris Biennale. Kochi, IN

What better way to wrap up this list of the top 2025 events for art, design, and architecture-led explorers than traveling to another country in the world set on inspiring the global community in the months ahead? The brainchild of renowned artist Nikhil Chopra, named as the curator for this edition, the 6th Kochi-Muziris Biennale, developed in collaboration with HH Art Spaces, focalizes on the process of artmaking as the liminal place where magic happens. "For this Biennale, we look at works that are still in the making, as opposed to the industrial norm of valuing only the completed work," explains Chopra, who adds "it's important to embrace the unfinished and the process." Held across multiple venues in Kochi, including historical sites and warehouses, in the Indian region of Kerala, the collective showcase will transform the city into a playground of creative innovation in a spellbinding dialogue between painting, land art, sculpture, and traditional crafts.

12 December-31 March, 2026. X69W+8QG, Fort Kochi, Kochi, Kerala 682001, India. Plan your visit

Who said sojourning at a hotel or other traditional holiday rentals is the only way to get the most out of the top 2025 events? Staying at these Airbnb alternatives, travelers say, feels like "entering an interiors magazine", and as the judges of the next in décor, they get our tick of approval.

With properties available all over the world, they make the ultimate base for your art, design, and architecture explorations, whether heading to one of the most inspiring events in 2025 or savoring the creative atmosphere of your temporary home.