The busy season for the arts and culture community kicks off in the fall, and Center-supported artists and organizations are no exception. In the coming weeks, you can catch a virtual reality tornado hosted at a planetarium, attend the long-awaited opening of a new cultural destination on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, explore rare artifacts that tell the story of America’s founding, and take a deep dive into the relationship between ceramic arts and health. Find out where you can experience these events and more in our 2025 fall arts guide.
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Visual Arts
LOOK HERE
September 19–December 13
Hurford Center for the Arts and Humanities
at Haverford College & Atelier Gallery
This multi-site exhibition spotlights the work of artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities and examines the changing narrative around progressive art studios—spaces that work with and support neurodivergent artists. At Haverford College’s Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, LOOK HERE features artists who practice with the Center for Creative Works (CCW). LOOK THERE, a second exhibition at Haverford’s Visual Culture, Arts, and Media facility, displays a single piece by all 99 artists currently working out of CCW’s Wynnewood and Philadelphia locations. A concurrent satellite exhibition at Atelier Gallery in Philadelphia, LOOK EVERYWHERE, showcases artworks from inclusive studios around the US.
Programming also includes a three-day symposium (October 20-23), bringing together artists and professionals from progressive art studios across the US and beyond to discuss best practices, advocacy, and the evolving landscape of art and disability.
Calder Gardens Public Opening & Parade
September 20–21
The Barnes Foundation
The long-awaited cultural space and gardens celebrating the work of the highly influential 20th-century sculptor and native Philadelphian Alexander Calder opens on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on September 21. More than five years in the making, Calder Gardens will play host not only to the sculptor’s works but also to concerts, performances, lectures, mindfulness practices, and more. Operated in partnership with the Barnes Foundation, the site features a building conceived by Pritzker Prize–winning design practice Herzog & de Meuron and gardens by acclaimed landscape designer Piet Oudolf. *
To mark the opening, Calder Gardens will host a free public parade along the Parkway on September 20 from noon to 2 p.m. The parade is conceived by artist, composer, and musician Arto Lindsay, with featured artists including Sun Ra Arkestra, Pig Iron Theatre Company, and Almanac Dance Circus Theatre.
The Living Temple: The World of Moki Cherry
September 25, 2025–April 12, 2026
Ars Nova Workshop
at The Fabric Workshop and Museum
A major retrospective installed at the Fabric Workshop and Museum surveys the work of Swedish visual artist, designer, and musician Moki Cherry (1943–2009), bringing together textile art and tapestries, paintings, concert posters, clothing and costumes, ceramics, music, video, and archival materials. The exhibition 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 who, like Cherry, creates textile works and performs as a musician.
Jerrell Gibbs: No Solace in the Shade
September 28, 2025–March 1, 2026
Brandywine Museum of Art
The first solo 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, selected for this exhibition from among his first ten years of work, explore facets of Black life, taking inspiration from family, friends, and community. A “Block Party” opening celebration on September 27 will include performances, a DJ, and food trucks.
Michelle Lopez: Pandemonium
October 3–December 6
The Galleries at Moore College of Art & Design
and at The Franklin Institute
In Pandemonium, artist and 2024 Pew Fellow Michelle Lopez investigates natural phenomena and social upheaval through the iconography of a rising tornado. Using a combination of sculpture, immersive video, and technology, the two-pronged exhibition features a video installation commissioned by The Galleries at Moore College of Art & Design and filmed specifically for the Franklin Institute’s Fels Planetarium. Around the corner in Moore’s galleries, the exhibition presents selected sculptural works that seem to teeter on collapse or imply imminent changes in atmosphere and perception. An October 3 opening event across both venues will offer performances, including an AI-inspired robot and elements of live musical performance.
Clay as Care
October 9–December 31, 2025
The Clay Studio
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. The exhibition is supported by new research into the relationship between ceramic art and health, which will be presented in a publication and through a symposium, held on October 25.
Performance
Hidden Virtuosas
November 1, 7, 8, 2025
Tempesta di Mare – Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra
at various locations
In Hidden Virtuosas, Tempesta di Mare 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 modern concert premieres, salon performances and other programs study the music and lives of Ospedali’s women, including Agata Canora della Pietà, whose Ecce Nunc will be heard for the first time by North American audiences November 7 and 8 at Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral. Programming kicks off with a symposium and salon on November 1 at FringeArts.
Wishing to Grow Up Brightly
November 5–23, 2025
Theatre Horizon
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. The work explores themes of loss, identity, and the questions that have the power to quietly shape lives.
History & Heritage
Poquessing Creek Trail of History: The Land, The People, The Stories
Various dates, September 13–November 15, 2025
Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia
at Byberry Friends Meeting House
Northeast Philadelphia’s Byberry neighborhood played an important, but often forgotten, role in early American history. The birthplace of founding father Benjamin Rush and a central hub for the city’s abolitionists, Byberry receives its due thanks to the Poquessing Creek Trail of History project. The trail features site-specific installations that examine slavery, including the Byberry Township African American Burial Ground, created in 1780 as a resting place for enslaved and free African Americans, as well as a recreation of Dr. Rush’s home. Fall events presented as part of the Preservation Alliance’s project include Lenape storytelling (September 13), a guided three-mile tour along the trail (October 4), a lantern-making workshop and lantern parade (both October 18), and a panel about the reading habits of the noted Black abolitionist and Underground Railroad leader, Robert Purvis (November 15).
Postmortem: Story Slam
September 24, 2025 closing event
Mütter Museum of the College of Physicians
The Mütter Museum concludes its Postmortem Project, a two-year process that included a collections review, research, and community dialogue focused on the museum’s human remains collection. The closing “Story Slam” event on September 24 invites speakers to share their personal connections to the museum, examine the complex ethical concerns surrounding its collections, and the power of historical storytelling for restorative justice.
The Declaration’s Journey
October 18, 2025–January 3, 2027
Museum of the American Revolution
To mark America’s 250th anniversary, the Museum of the American Revolution examines the legacy and global impact of the country’s Declaration of Independence. The exhibition highlights declarations from countries such as Haiti, Chile, Poland, and Korea, and brings together rare documents, works of art, and artifacts from around the world, including Thomas Jefferson’s Windsor chair, which he is believed to have used as he drafted the Declaration.
The Kiyoshi Project: Symposium
October 30, 2025
William Way LBGT Community Center
at Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania
A new documentary and series of programs chronicle the life and legacy of author and human rights advocate Kiyoshi Kuromiya. The Kiyoshi Project’s next public event is the Kiyoshi Day Symposium, bringing together community members from the many movements Kuromiya was affiliated with, including civil rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and community media. Held on campus at the University of Pennsylvania from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on October 30, the symposium will offer a work-in-progress screening of the documentary, post-screening Q&A, panel discussions, and more.
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* The Barnes Foundation received a 2024 Evolving Futures grant to support its operational functions for Calder Gardens. As of August 2025, the Barnes is the operating partner for The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage and is no longer eligible for Center grants, nor do Barnes staff members determine Center grant recipients.
