The Center’s grantees have big plans for 2025. Projects coming this year include a new hip-hop dance performance, a musical inspired by real-life stories of illness and caregiving, a composition for four pianos, exhibitions on climate change, Black culture, and the Declaration of Independence, and more. Fill your calendar with events that reflect deep personal histories, address important issues of the moment, and explore Philadelphia’s rich cultural communities.
Additional events, as well as more dates and venue details, will be announced throughout the year. You can stay up to date by signing up for our newsletter.
Winter
Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses
Institute of Contemporary Art
January 18 – April 6; opening celebration January 17, 7 p.m.
The ICA presents the first in-depth survey of visual artist Carl Cheng’s experimental work from the 1960s through today, reflecting on environmental change, the role of technology in society, and the relevance of art institutions.
Evan Williams Composition World Premiere
Perelman Theater, February 14 and 16
Esperanza Arts Center, February 15
The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia premieres a commissioned work by composer-in-residence Evan Williams in performances at Perelman Theater and Esperanza Arts Center. Grounded in minimalist and postmodern music, Williams’ work frequently integrates music from non-orchestral traditions like jazz, blues, and spirituals. The program also includes two Haydn pieces and Jessie Montgomery’s “Divided,” featuring cellist Tommy Mesa.
Suzanne Roberts Theatre
February 21 – March 9
Philadelphia Theatre Company’s premiere of the Lazour brothers’ new musical explores the intimacy of illness and caregiving with humor, grace, and empathy, informed by interviews with patients, doctors, and hospital staff in Philadelphia and elsewhere. Prior to the Roberts Theatre performances, the production will tour local hospitals, community centers, and places of worship.
Penn Live Arts
March 14 – 15
As part of a three-year residency at Penn Live Arts, choreographer and Pew Fellow Rennie Harris premieres his commissioned work American Street Dancer, celebrating the history and impact of street dance across the arts world, from theater and film to other dance forms like tap and salsa. The work is performed by his company Rennie Harris Puremovement with a hip-hop orchestra of bucket and hambone players, beat boxers, and DJs.
Beyond Glass Cases: Reflections
The Library Company of Philadelphia
March 18 – July 3
What role should libraries and museums take in addressing social justice issues? The Library Company explores this question in the culminating exhibition of its Beyond Glass Cases series, soliciting responses from visitors and revisiting the work the project collaborators created in dialogue with Library Company materials, including visual art works, music, and curated exhibitions.
Spring
Mandell Theater
April 3 and 5
Journey Arts presents four composer-pianists —Kendrah Butler-Waters, Pew Fellow Sumi Tonooka, Suzzette Ortiz, and Terry Klinefelter—in a suite of newly commissioned music for four pianos. The compositions are inspired by real-life Philadelphians’ stories of life’s pivotal moments and feature poetry by Pew Fellow Yolanda Wisher.
Mann Center for the Performing Arts
May 2 – 3
Choreographer Jennifer Archibald and BalletX premiere a genre-blending contemporary ballet inspired by themes from William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Contemplating power dynamics, social control, and survival instincts, the multi-sensory experience invites audiences to reflect on the complexities of human nature and the struggle for dominance and survival.
Pure Lucia: The Music of Lucia Dlugoszewski
Bowerbird
May
A multi-day festival illuminates the work of avant-garde composer Lucia Dlugoszewski (1925–2000), who composed more than 150 pieces in her lifetime, invented dozens of instruments, and worked in other disciplines such as poetry, dance, and film.
Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture
Summer
Inspired by The Travels of Ibn Jubayr—an 800-year-old Andalusian text that describes the titular traveler’s pilgrimage to Mecca—a droll new road film reframes historical travel narratives and conceptions of Arabic-speaking people, satirizing the role of the autonomous individual in the Arab world.
Summer
Pig Iron Theatre Company
June
An alternative history of science unfolds in this family-friendly play set in a world where Ben Franklin’s inventions have been hidden underneath Philadelphia’s landmarks for centuries. Featuring live Foley sound effects, the show follows the adventures of two teenagers who unlock a series of puzzles to discover Franklin’s secret experiments.
Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education
June
Choreographer Silvana Cardell creates a site-specific dance performance in the forest of the Schuylkill Center, examining the connections between women’s bodies and the natural world and featuring a cast of multigenerational dancers and a score that amplifies the natural sounds of the forest.
Fall
Ars Nova Workshop
Fall
A major retrospective surveys the work of Swedish visual artist, designer, and musician Moki Cherry (1943–2009), bringing together textile art/tapestries, paintings, concert posters, clothing and costumes, ceramics, music, video, and archival materials. The project features Cherry’s collaborations with her life partner, jazz composer and musician Don Cherry, and a new immersive installation created by contemporary artist Lisa Alvarado.
Theatre Horizon
Fall
A new comedic musical interrogates cultural narratives about Korean transnational adoption, assimilation, and code-switching. Amanda Morton leads the work’s development, drawing from her own life experiences as an adopted Korean American child raised by white parents and interviews with Korean American and adoptee communities.
Moore College of Art & Design
The Franklin Institute
Fall
A multimedia installation by artist Michelle Lopez immerses audiences in a VR sculpture of violent tornadoes and constellations of cell phone lights to contemplate meteorological and human-created disasters. The Galleries at Moore and the Franklin Institute’s Fels Planetarium present concurrent versions of the installation, along with an exhibition of Lopez’s recent work on view at Moore.
Jerrell Gibbs: No Solace in the Shade
Brandywine Museum of Art
September 28, 2025 – March 1, 2026
The first monographic exhibition of the work of Jerrell Gibbs presents the painter’s figurative depictions of Black masculinity and culture. Gibbs’ vibrant paintings of his family and friends highlight the artist’s concerns with identity, community, and emotional and psychological health.
The Clay Studio
October 9 – December 31
This exhibition considers ways in which care manifests in ceramic art and how viewing art and working with clay can promote personal and communal health. The show features artists whose practices address healing, rest, and resilience, including Jennifer Ling Datchuk, Ehren Tool, and Pew Fellows Adebunmi Gbadebo and Maia Chao.
Museum of the American Revolution
October 18, 2025 – January 3, 2027
In celebration of the Declaration of Independence’s 250th anniversary, this exhibition examines the document’s considerable impact and influence on other declarations of rights. The museum highlights 15 declarations from Haiti, Chile, Poland, Korea, and other countries, along with a canopy made from facsimiles of several hundred others, and rare documents, works of art, and artifacts from around the world.
Hidden Virtuosas: music by and for the extraordinary female musicians of baroque Venice
Tempesta di Mare
November
An orchestral concert reconstructs the works of women composers from baroque Venice’s Ospedali, an institution that housed and educated abandoned children and destitute or disabled people. In addition to these modern premieres, salon performances and other programs study the music and lives of Ospedali’s women.
Hurford Center for the Arts and Humanities, Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery
Atelier Gallery
Fall
This exhibition spotlights the creativity of artists practicing with the Center for Creative Works (CCW), a regional Philadelphia studio focused on professional development and representation of neurodiverse artists. A concurrent satellite exhibition at Atelier Gallery in Philadelphia features artworks from inclusive studios around the US.
