The fall season brings a lineup of intriguing performances and thought-provoking exhibitions, supported by grants from the Center. There is truly something for everyone, from a deeply personal exhibition about convalescence and an exploration of the history of American school lunch to new music and theater performances that examine Mexican culture, Irish identity, and the seductive power of cults. Scan our list of events to fill your fall arts calendar.
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In Galleries & Public Spaces
Declaration House
Open through December 1
Monument Lab
A public art and history exhibition at Independence National Historical Park centers Robert Hemings, an enslaved valet who assisted Thomas Jefferson as he drafted the Declaration of Independence. Visit the site where the Declaration was drafted to see an installation by Sonya Clark that features the blinking eyes of Hemings’ descendants and other relatives of the hundreds of people enslaved at Monticello.
Convalescence
September 3 – November 1
Thomas Jefferson University
Pew Fellow Pepón Osorio’s immersive installation at the university’s health sciences campus explores community-based care and the artist’s personal experience as a cancer survivor. The installation includes materials from Osorio’s journey, such as MRI scans and the chair he sat in to receive treatments, and stories from others who have experienced life-threatening illnesses.
John Jarboe: The Rose Garden
Through September 29
The Fabric Workshop and Museum
An immersive performance-installation expresses the gender journey of cabaret artist John Jarboe through video projection, music, and childhood artifacts, inspired by and devoted to the artist’s consumed-in-the-womb twin, Rose. Supporting live events include performances by Pew Fellow Emily Bate on September 5 and performance artist and singer Justin Vivian Bond on September 6.
We Here
Through October 19
Mural Arts Philadelphia
Pew Fellow Roberto Lugo created three monumental ceramic vessels to be installed in public locations in Kensington—Kensington Corridor Trust, the Free Church of St. John, and Taller Puertorriqueño—incorporating designs from community members into each 12-foot sculpture. Additional programming includes tile-making workshops, sculpture tours, and a block party.
Enrique Bostelmann: Apertures and Borderscapes
Through December 15
Berman Museum of Art
A retrospective on Mexican photographer Enrique Bostelmann (1939–2003) complements the artist’s genre-bending work with new interviews with his family, collaborators, and art historians to consider how his photographs address and transgress boundaries—across cultures, styles, and countries.
Learn more about the research process for this exhibition:
Projects in Process: Discoveries in the Archives with Berman Museum and Japan America Society
Beyond Glass Cases
Through October 30
Library Company of Philadelphia
Two simultaneous exhibitions—Black Historians’ Department: The Past Belongs to You and Crania Americana and the Archive of Scientific Racism—ponder public engagement with the Library Company’s more controversial artifacts. A third component featuring large-scale paintings by Pew Fellow Mark Thomas Gibson opens on October 15.
Philadelphia Revealed: Unpacking the Attic
Through December 1
Drexel University
On view at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, more than 600 artifacts from Philadelphia history dating back to the 18th century—drawn from Drexel‘s Atwater Kent Collection—highlight diverse aspects of the city’s history from civic life, the arts, sports, manufacturing, and other salvaged materials and relics. The Philadelphia Revealed podcast complements the exhibition with stories about items in the collection.
Wherever There is Light
September 12 – December 21
TILT Institute for the Contemporary Image
A multimedia photography exhibition presents new works by previously incarcerated artists that consider the visual elements of freedom, personhood, visibility, and belonging. The exhibition includes work by photographer Larry W. Cook, whose work speaks to representation of Black communities and culture.
Black Like That: Our Lives as Living Praxis
August 30 – December 7
Temple Contemporary
New works by Pat Phillips and Pew Fellows Tiona Nekkia McClodden and Karyn Olivier examine how Black history and contemporary Black life are intertwined. The multi-site exhibition is informed by neighborhood-specific archival research with presentations at Temple Contemporary and in three Philadelphia neighborhoods central to Black history and life: North Philadelphia, West Philadelphia, and Germantown.
Lunchtime: The History of Science on the School Food Tray
Opens September 27
Science History Institute
An exhibition surveys the history of school lunch in the United States, delving into the evolution of food science and the challenges of feeding a country’s schoolchildren, including Philadelphia’s role in jumpstarting a national conversation around children’s access to food in the early 20th century. The exhibition opening program includes a school lunch-inspired tasting, curator’s talk, quizzo, and other activities.
Postmortem Project
Through December 31
The Mütter Museum
A series of exhibitions, open houses, and other public engagements gathers community input on respect, consent, and ethics in a medical history context. Findings from the project inform the museum’s interpretation and display of human remains.
Behind These Walls: Community Perspectives on our History
Through November 24
Michener Art Museum
Acknowledging the museum’s history as the former Bucks County jail, this exhibition features new interpretations of its building and gardens to reckon with mass incarceration and the site’s past, including participatory art installations by artist jackie sumell.
On Stages
On Buried Ground
September 4 – 14
Christ Church Neighborhood House
An immersive performance by dance artist Shayla-Vie Jenkins, playwright Angela Bey, and director Nia Benjamin draws from archival records (including newly digitized records from early Philadelphia congregations) to reveal the histories of enslaved and freed people of African descent in Philadelphia during the American colonial era. An exhibition, running through December 26, accompanies the performances.
The Playboy of the Western World
September 19 – October 13
Inis Nua Theatre Company
A modern adaptation reframes J.M. Synge’s 1907 play to confront contemporary issues such as immigration, cultural assimilation, and celebrity worship. The revisited version is written by Nigerian Irish playwright Bisi Adigun and Irish writer Roddy Doyle, presenting a changing, multicultural Ireland.
The Listeners
September 25 – 29
Opera Philadelphia
A suburban mom and her neighbors convene over a mysterious hum only they can hear in the US premiere of a new opera by composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek. As the titular “listeners” gravitate to a charismatic leader in secret meetings, the opera contemplates the seductive power of cults in a divided nation.
Nichos
October 17 – 27
Esperanza Arts Center
A multidisciplinary theater performance by Tanaquil Márquez, Ximena Violante, and Calo Rosa traverses Mexico’s long history and traces the evolution of Mexican culture and national identity over five centuries of conquest, colonization, and transformation.
We Have Gone As Far As We Can Together
November 1 – 9
FringeArts
Created by a team including lead performer Helga Davis, director Charlotte Brathwaite, dramaturg Sunder Ganglani, and visual and multimedia artist Cauleen Smith, this world-premiere “modular opera” features a choir of Philadelphia voices coming together for “ritual release.” The work is inspired by artists ranging from Alice Coltrane and Sun Ra to composer Pauline Oliveros.
