2026 Philadelphia Art Guide
Folding the Prism © 2019 Mural Arts Philadelphia / Jessie Unterhalter & Katey Truhn (Jessie & Katey), Photo by Steve Weinik via Discover PHL
Events & Workshops
Date(s): June 4th - June 6th
Tickets: Free
Elsewhere is a boutique, room-based art fair taking place June 4–6, 2026, at YOWIE in Philadelphia. Organized by Blah Blah Gallery, the fair brings together a focused group of galleries and independent curators for presentations that prioritize scale, hospitality, and curatorial intention.
Presentations are staged across guest rooms and suites, allowing exhibitions to unfold within domestic, architectural spaces rather than traditional booth layouts. This format supports site-responsive installation, slower engagement, and sustained conversation between galleries, artists, and visitors.
Rittenhouse Square Fine Art Show
Date(s): June 5th - 7th 2026 ; Sept 18-20, 2026
Tickets: Free
Founded by artists in 1928, and run by a committee of artists today, the Rittenhouse Square Fine Art Show is the oldest outdoor art show in the country. Steeped in rich history and tradition, there is absolutely no other show like it. Returning visitors and patrons understand the unique sensations offered by our extraordinary setting. Step away from the frenetic world of schedules and deadlines. The color, imagery, and sculptural forms breathe life into the city during these two long-awaited events each spring and fall.
InLiquid’s Art for the Cash Poor 2026
Date: Saturday, June 13, 2026 • 12 - 6 pm
Tickets: Free
Purchase works from 100+ artists, crafters, and designers both inside the Icebox Project Space and outside the Crane Arts Building! The Art for the Cash Poor festival is an affordable art fair that activates and brings together North American Street's robust arts corridor.
Artist vendors sell original works for $250 or less and local arts and community organizations will provide free programming for visitors that day, including arts and crafts-making demonstrations, workshops, and more!
Save Philly Festivals Bus Tour
Date: Saturday, June 27 • 12 PM - 3 PM
Tickets: $65
From block parties to cultural parades, Philadelphia's festivals are living archives of community memory, joy, and resistance. But many are disappearing — and their stories are being lost.
Our citywide bus tour is a journey into the story of unique, immersive, diverse spaces that celebrate Philly's neighborhoods — their heritage, music, food, sports, and vibes.
2026 Tools of the Trade Conference
Date(s): Thursday, March 19th (online) & Friday, March 20th
Tickets: Free
Tools of the Trades is an annual hybrid conference dedicated to connecting artisans, makers, and creative entrepreneurs in Philadelphia and beyond to the business resources they actually need. We believe that creativity is the engine of our economy, but community is the fuel.
This event is a concentrated period of participatory learning designed to help craft-focused businesses accelerate growth and find success on their own terms. We don’t just teach business, we facilitate a space where expertise is disseminated across generations and where no question goes unanswered.
Textiles for Remembering Artists & Curators in Conversation
Date: Sunday, March 1st, 2026
Tickets: Free
Join artists Richie Wilde Lopez and DeJeonge Reese alongside curators Lori Waselchuk and Qiaira Riley for a public conversation exploring textile practices as living archives of memory, culture, and care.
Grounded in the themes of Textiles for Remembering, the conversation will reflect on how fiber-based practices carry personal and collective histories through touch, repetition, and ritual. The artists and curators will discuss their approaches to working with textiles as sites of remembrance, resistance, and cultural transmission, drawing connections between material process, ancestry, and contemporary meaning-making.
2026 The Arts League Artist Convening
Critical Making: Reimagining Community Care Through Arts Education
Date(s): Friday, February 27th & Saturday, February 28th
Tickets: $42.26
Participants will connect with fellow educators and artists, exchange ideas rooted in experimentation and responsive pedagogy, and leave with new tools for building inclusive, impactful learning experiences. Whether you’re a teaching artist, educator, or arts advocate, this conference is an opportunity to learn, reflect, and invest in the future of community-based arts education.
Major Art Exhibitions & Visual Arts
What: A sweeping Semi quincentennial exhibition spanning from early American art to contemporary voices — including works by Indigenous, African American, immigrant, and underrepresented artists such as Rina Banerjee, Mickalene Thomas, and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith.
When: Apr 12, 2026 – Sept 5, 2027
Where: Philadelphia Museum of Art & Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Bodies and Souls: Selections from the Kohler Collection
What: Bodies and Souls celebrates their devotion to artists and immense generosity towards PAFA. Featuring over 120 works given and promised to the museum, the exhibition will examine prominent themes in the collection, integrating artists who are often seen independently or as part of regional communities.
When: Now on view until July 12th, 2026
Where: PAFA (Fisher Brooks Gallery Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building)
What: This exhibition celebrates a movement that inspired people across the city to come together for community-led futures and against the proposed 76 Place arena development, a basketball arena proposed by billionaires, and built less than one block from Chinatown. The “No Arena” movement was a landmark moment for the power of everyday people organizing against displacement. On the occasion of America’s 250th Anniversary, No Arena: Making A Movement highlights a decentralized grassroots movement that was led by people of color, serving as a model for what our democracy can be.
When: On view now until July 11th, 2026
Where: Asian Arts Initiative
What: On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, this presentation of works from The Fabric Workshop and Museum’s collection explores the complexity of American-ness through lenses of history, memory, and mythology. Made by past Artists-in-Residence in collaboration with the FWM Studio, the projects reimagine symbols of nationhood and belonging, critique ongoing legacies of inequity, and offer expansive visions of kinship and community.
When: On view now until June 14th, 2026
Where: Fabric Workshop and Museum
SOFT LIFE - City Arts Salon Gallery
What: Soft Life is a duo exhibition curated and hosted by City Arts Salon Gallery in the heart of Germantown, Philadelphia, featuring visual artists Oronde Kairi and Keshida Layone. Together, they present a powerful meditation on softness as resistance, joy as legacy, and inner peace as a radical and intentional choice within the Black experience.
When: On view now until June 27th, 2026
Where: City Arts Salon Gallery
What: As Philadelphia and the nation prepare to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, Freedom Dreams brings together powerful works by artists in film, video, and installation that invite viewers to immerse themselves in the memories, dreams, and histories of Black Americans.
When: On view now until August 9th, 2026
Where: Barnes Foundation
Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments
What: Held at the PMA, this exhibition investigates the role of monuments, blending art, sports, and pop culture, featuring 150+ works.
When: On view now until August 2nd, 2026
Where: Philadelphia Museum of Art
Radical Americana — Citywide Collaborative Exhibitions
What: Series of exhibitions and events across partner institutions (including The Colored Girl Museum, Asian Arts Initiative, Taller Puertorriqueño, Print Center, and more) that explore America’s creative legacy from multiple cultural viewpoints.
When: Throughout 2026 as part of America250 arts programming
Where: Venues across Philadelphia
Noah Davis Retrospective — Philadelphia Art Museum
What: Landmark survey of the acclaimed Black artist Noah Davis (1983–2015), highlighting his paintings, curatorial projects, and community-centered work.
When: Jan 24–Apr 26, 2026
Where: Philadelphia Museum of Art
Public Art & Citywide Projects
Bells Across PA: A statewide art exhibition in partnership with America250PA and Mural Arts Philadelphia — is showcasing festively painted Liberty Bell replicas in all 67 Pennsylvania counties, with Philadelphia alone set to display 27.
Philly’s large fiberglass Liberty Bell sculptures have been installed at commercial corridors and public parks, with each bell’s design capturing the spirit and identity of a different neighborhood.
52 Weeks of Firsts: A citywide public sculpture initiative featuring weekly unveilings painted by diverse artists, with festivals and performances accompanying each reveal.
Printmaking by the People: Citywide Voices of 2026: Started in the fall of 2024, this special art project engaged the public in 50+ workshops examining the question: “What does freedom require today?” Now in its culminating year, the project reveals hundreds of prints this April in an exhibition at the Free Library of Philadelphia. In June, Mural Arts unveils a major new mural creating a “citywide portrait” of what Philadelphians think about democracy at this moment
Vámonos pa’l monte (Let’s Go to the Mountains): In October, artist Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz leads a parade of revelers and community members on a four-mile walk from City Hall to the historically Puerto Rican community of Norris Square. The vibrant public performance reflects on Puerto Rican heritage while paying tribute to the endurance of community identity.
Theatre & Performance Highlights
A citywide interdisciplinary arts festival featuring artists of color and local creators in theatre, performance, dance, music, and visual art.
Theatre & Performance Projects in ArtPhilly
The Basil Biggs Project: Written and performed by Anna Deavere Smith, exploring Civil War era history and legacies of Black experience.
Kea and the Ark: A performance and discussion piece rooted in historical protest and community storytelling.
The Becoming: An immersive performance by Shavon Norris with dialogue around womanhood and identity.
ArtPhilly runs May 27 – July 4, 2026, across multiple venues around Philly.
What: A community-centered performance project by Lynda Grace Black & Magda Martinez celebrating layered identities and belonging through shared stories and performance.
When: June 11–13, 2026
Where: Christ Church Neighborhood House
Why it matters: Celebrates diverse lived experiences through storytelling, rhythm, and communal performance.
What: A citywide theatre celebration featuring productions from local companies — offering pay-what-you-can access to innovative theatre.
When: Apr 23 – May 3, 2026
Where: Various venues
Good to know: While not exclusively focused on artists of color, Philly Theatre Week often includes works by diverse playwrights and performers from the city’s rich community theatre scene.
Festivals & Other Cultural Events
Date(s): Week of Events: June 7th - 13th ; Sunday, June 14th, 2026
The Odunde Festival is the largest African American and African diaspora street festival in North America, spanning 16 city blocks in South Philadelphia's Graduate Hospital neighborhood. Centered at 23rd and South streets, this vibrant annual event celebrates the global influence of African and Caribbean cultures through an authentic marketplace, food stalls, and live performances.
Concilio’s Annual Hispanic Fiesta
Date(s): Saturday, June 27th, 2026
Concilio’s Annual Hispanic Fiesta is Philadelphia’s premier Latino arts and culture festival. Located just a short drive from Lansdowne at LOVE Park (or nearby Center City locations), this vibrant, family-friendly event features live music, authentic cuisine, and traditional dance showcases that celebrate the region's Hispanic heritage
Date(s): August 6th - 9th, 2026
One of the premiere global showcases of cinema by artists of color — often described as the “Black Sundance.” BlackStar Film Festival is an annual celebration of the visual and storytelling traditions of the global majority—showcasing films by Black, Brown, and Indigenous people from around the world.
