In 2026, Philly’s vibrant artists, exhibitions, and festivals are taking center stage, proving that the city’s cultural legacy is as alive and ambitious as evers
Next year will mark 250 years of American independence. Philadelphia, the nation’s birthplace and one of the East Coast’s most underrated cities, is preparing for a renaissance of its own.
Known as the City of Brotherly Love, Philly is often highlighted for its food and sports legacy (with the glow of Jalen Hurts and the Eagles still illuminating the city). But beneath that surface lies a robust, vibrant lineage of artists, interdisciplinary creators, and collectives who’ve shaped the cultural fabric of the city with immense innovation and fierce local pride.
From hidden gems to rising institutions, Philly’s creative community has been laying the groundwork for centuries, and 2026 is poised to be their most ambitious year yet. In 2026, the city is re-emphasizing itself as a living, breathing creative hub where museums and galleries, experimental artist-run spaces, and a growing slate of film festivals are expanding the city’s cultural footprint.
Here’s what to look out for in the year ahead.
BlackStar Film Festival
Celebrating its 15th anniversary, the BlackStar Film Festival remains one of the most essential cultural touchstones in Philadelphia—a haven for film lovers, deep thinkers, artists, and everyone in between. Guided by its tagline, Cinema for Liberation, BlackStar champions the visionary work of BIPOC filmmakers from around the world, presenting a weeklong lineup of films from both veteran and emerging artists whose stories expand, disrupt, and reimagine the cinematic landscape.
The festival transforms the city: theaters buzz with North American premieres, panels spark dazzling conversations, and chance encounters blossom into new friendships. The energy is joyful, communal, and intellectually alive, coloring Philadelphia with a vibrancy that feels both celebratory and deeply rooted in purpose.
Runs August 6th through August 9th, 2026
Calder Gardens
Philadelphia’s newest cultural institution, Calder Gardens, merges nature and art in an immersive environment dedicated entirely to the work of Alexander Calder (1898–1976), known for his sculptures, mobiles, and monumental works that respond to the natural world. Designed by Herzog & de Meuron in collaboration with landscape architect Piet Oudolf, the space unfolds as part museum, part meditative landscape.
Pathways curve toward unexpected sightlines; windows usher in light that frames his mobiles; shifting shadows become part of the liveliness of his art. Calder Gardens invites visitors into an encompassing location that doesn’t just display art pieces—it interacts with them, with the building itself functioning as art.
Opened this past September, the space also debuts with inaugural commissions by internationally acclaimed artists Cecilia Vicuña and Raven Chacon, on view through summer 2026. Calder Gardens adds to the legacy of Philadelphia’s art scene dedicated to marrying art and nature as a sanctuary that foregrounds the interconnectedness of life, place, and creative expression.
A year of art and film in Philadelphia
Photography by Iwan Baan. Image courtesy of Calder Gardens.
Paradigm Gallery + Studio
In 2023, more than a decade after its official opening, Paradigm Gallery + Studio settled into its new home in Old City Philadelphia, opening its doors in a bigger, bolder way that reflects its long-standing commitment to emerging and mid-career artists, with a special emphasis on championing local creative talent. This multi-level gallery offers not just expanded exhibition areas but an integrated in-house design and printmaking studio, as well as dedicated community-centered floors for workshops and events.
Spanning several floors, the Paradigm feels less like a traditional gallery and more like a full creative ecosystem—an ideal place to wander, linger, and discover the depth of a homegrown artistic community.
A year of art and film in Philadelphia
Installation view, The Event Phase. Image courtesy of Paradigm Gallery. Artwork by Nazeer Sabree.
Currently on view is local Philly artist Nazeer Sabree’s solo exhibition The Event Phase, curated by Ginger Rudolph. This marks Sabree’s second solo show, which he describes as “a practice of libation—a pouring out of memory, gratitude, grief, and joy for the people and moments that have shaped him.” Through oil pastels, glittering surfaces, and mixed-media textures, Sabree uses his art to trace visual archives of Black interior life, family histories, and ancestral guidance.
Runs through November 23rd, 2025
Following Sabree’s exhibition is Amor Fati by Philadelphia-based sculptor Drew Leshko. Leshko documents and immortalizes long-forgotten businesses and neglected establishments destined to be torn down and replaced with “newer, shinier but often soulless” developments. His miniature architectural sculptures capture Philadelphia’s rapidly changing landscape, transforming overlooked sites into intimate monuments and raising pressing questions about the future of the city’s built environment.
Runs through November 30th, 2025
Closing out the year are the highly anticipated exhibitions No Garden, with works by Eric Kenny, Max Sachel, and Keith Warren Greiman, and a solo exhibition by Martha Rich.
Runs through December 5th, 2025
Crane Arts Studio
Crane Arts Studio is home to two of Philadelphia’s most vital contemporary art spaces: InLiquid and TILT. Together, they create a dynamic hub for local artists, experimental practice, and civic-minded exhibitions that speak directly to the cultural heartbeat of the city.
InLiquid
Currently on view at InLiquid is The Source of Self-Regard, curated by cultural worker, entrepreneur, and educator Tayyib Smith. The exhibition brings together seven Black artists with Philadelphia roots to examine the politics, tenderness, and expansiveness of the Black self.
Runs through November 29th, 2025
A year of art and film in Philadelphia
Installation view, The Source of Self Regard. Image courtesy of Inliquid.
Following this is Atopos Adaptation, a multimedia exhibition featuring seven InLiquid Artist Members exploring life, form, and the beauty and diversity of the organisms with whom we coexist.
Runs from December 6th, 2025, to January 10th, 2026
In early 2026, InLiquid will present Make-it-Pop!, a vibrant survey of Pop Art aesthetics—from bold color and graphic play to mass-produced imagery and cultural critique—highlighting how contemporary Philadelphia artists reinterpret and remix the Pop tradition.
Later in 2026 is Radical Americana, part of a citywide consortium of exhibitions responding to the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence. The series invites artists to interrogate the legacy of 1776 and its subsequent commemorations in 1876, 1926, and 1976, reimagining how these past markers can inform a more honest and urgent contemporary dialogue about national identity, democracy, and the future of the American experiment.
Runs May 29th through July 11th, 2026
A year of art and film in Philadelphia
A year of art and film in Philadelphia
Left: Alex Spalding, No You, featured in Make-It-Pop! Right: Thomas Murray, Duende Sweep, featured in Atopos Adaptation. Images courtesy of Inliquid.
TILT Institute for the Contemporary Image
Across the hall, TILT Institute for the Contemporary Image continues to cement itself as one of Philadelphia’s most forward-looking spaces for lens-based and interdisciplinary art. Currently on view is Shikeith: People Who Die Bad Don’t Stay in the Ground, a haunting and deeply spiritual body of work by the local artist. Shikeith explores Black queer interiority, ritual, and the transformation of Black Southern folklore, personal mythologies, and spiritual cosmologies.
The show feels like both a séance and a sanctuary, inviting viewers to confront the ghosts—personal, historical, and collective—that shape Black life in America.
Runs through November 22nd, 2025
A year of art and film in Philadelphia
Installation view, Shikeith: People Who Die Bad Don’t Stay in the Grave.
Entering the new year is the group exhibition Homeboyz in Inner Space by Philadelphia-based artists David Evan McDowell, Lendl Tellington, and Rashid Zakat. The show offers a meditation on the universal yearning to make sense of our existence and purpose in this life, while questioning how institutional systems and prescriptive socialization shape the journey to consciousness.
December 11th, 2025, through March 21st, 2026
A year of art and film in Philadelphia
A year of art and film in Philadelphia
Left, Old Dog, photography by Lendl Tellington. Right: Photography by David Evan McDowell. Images courtesy of TILT, featured in Homeboyz in Inner Space.