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Fall in Philly brings dozens of new exhibitions and art installations to the city’s museums and attractions.
An exhibition at the Brandywine River Museum of Art reimagines classic fairytales while the Barnes Foundation explores photography, painting and sculpture from prominent African American artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lorna Simpson and Kehinde Wiley.
Other season highlights include an exhibition devoted to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the National Museum of American Jewish History, Japanese bamboo displays at Longwood Gardens and wearable art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Read on for our guide to the must-see exhibitions to seek out in Philly in fall 2019.
The Library Company of Philadelphia reflects on how Black artists of the past imagined a bright future for Black people via a collection of love letters, poems, speeches, drawings and more.
Where: The Library Company of Philadelphia, 1314 Locust Street
In The Veiling at The Fabric Workshop and Museum, artist Bill Viola uses nine scrims hanging from the ceiling that catch the light from two video projections. The installation creates the illusion that a man and woman are walking toward each other, then apart again. The exhibition aims to depict our understanding of human interaction.
Where: The Fabric Workshop and Museum, 1214 Arch Street
In its first fully interactive exhibition, the Parkway Central Library invites families to learn about the connection between literature and the five human senses via multiple hands-on stations and activities. Bonus: Visitors can also sign up for free, curator-led tours of the exhibition.
Where: Parkway Central Library, 1901 Vine Street
The Woodmere Art Museum commemorates the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall uprising by displaying a selection of works by LGBTQ artists.
Where: Woodmere Art Museum, 9201 Germantown Avenue
Halloween enthusiasts should make time to explore this exhibition of Peter Paone’s Halloween-inspired paintings on display at the Brandywine River Museum of Art. Through the paintings, Paone envisions the holiday as a “day of denial” in which people can create or adopt personas that often reflect their true desires.
Where: Brandywine River Museum of Art, 1 Hoffmans Mill Road, Chadds Ford
Visitors at the Kimmel Center can enjoy two free art installations this fall. The first installation — called Los Trompos — features 10 colorful 3D tops designed by Mexican designers Héctor Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena that guests can sit or spin on. Mexican American artist Karina Puente’s 53 hand-cut paper panels hang from the ceiling and make up the Look Up! Look In installation.
Where: Kimmel Center, 300 S. Broad Street
Beth Sholom Synagogue, the National Historical Landmark designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, hosts its first-ever artist commission: David Hartt’s multimedia installation examines and evokes the culture, migration and environment of Jewish and Black diasporas in America. Highlights include new recordings of of music by 19th-century Jewish-Creole composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk, video and tapestry that evoke the landscapes of Haiti and New Orleans, live musical activations by Haitian Philadelphian baritone Jean Bernard Cerin (and more musicians) and tropical plants throughout.
Where: Beth Sholom Synagogue, 8231 Old York Road, Elkins Park
Artist Rashaad Newsome’s BLACK MAGIC reflects on Blackness, the future of intersectional identities and oppression. The project includes three separate parts: To Be Real, which focuses on the future of artificial intelligence and being; FIVE, which explores the art of Vogue Femme, and the Champion Ball, highlighting Philadelphia’s vogue community.
Where: Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, 1400 N. American Street
The National Marian Anderson Museum celebrates the famed singer with an exhibition running for the remainder of 2019. This “living history tour” gives guests a chance to view Marian’s performance gowns and accessories, photographs, recordings and more, and learn how each connected to her life in Philadelphia.
Where: National Marian Anderson Museum, 762 Martin Street
A multidisciplinary artist embraces the role of provocateur with performance, music and animation at The Fabric Workshop and Museum. As a queer African American man, Satterwhite addresses issues that affect his personal experience as well as topics of nostalgia, family and music.
An exhibit at The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University shows how sea level fluctuations and volcanic activity caused dinosaurs to disperse all over the globe. Interactive components allow guests to touch fossil casts, name their own dinosaur and investigate what dinosaurs may have looked like millions of years ago.
Where: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Dates vary by exhibition
Several exhibitions take place simultaneously at the Institute of Contemporary Art this fall. arms ache avid aeon: Nancy Brooks Brody / Joy Episalla / Zoe Leonard / Carrie Yamaoka: fierce pussy amplified (September 13 – December 22, 2019) is an in-depth, multimedia exhibition featuring boundary-pushing works by four artists who formed the groundbreaking queer art collective “fierce pussy amplified” in New York City in 1991. Also on display at the museum are Michelle Lopez’s architectural works in Ballast & Barricades (September 13, 2019 – May 10, 2020) as well as Banal Presents (September 13 – December 22, 2019), the final part of the Colored People Time exhibition running throughout 2019.
Where: Institute of Contemporary Art, 118 S. 36th Street
Guests at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts have plenty to enjoy this fall. To celebrate Hamilton’s run at the Forrest Theatre, the museum exhibits its collections of works depicting Alexander Hamilton (August 27 – November 19, 2019). Also, From the Schuylkill to the Hudson takes a look at Philadelphia’s role in the development of American landscape painting (June 28 – December 29, 2019). Finally, 13 artists collaborate to explore the meaning of the present in Ancient History of the Distant Future, which juxtaposes contemporary works with pieces from the museum’s permanent collection (September 26, 2019 – February 2, 2020).
Where: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 118-128 N. Broad Street
The Woodmere Art Museum presents the first large-scale exhibition of work in more than two decades of Neff, a beloved Philadelphia artist and leading realist painter who died at age 52 in 1995.
In New Asian Futurisms, artists attempt to make traditional science fiction more inclusive and optimistic via visual art, digital media, poetry and performance.
Where: Asian Arts Initiative, 1219 Vine Street
Twenty-four mixed metal and mixed media artists use their own works to respond to the Mercer Museum’s core collection in this special exhibition.
Where: Mercer Museum, 84 S. Pine Street, Doylestown
This 5,000-square-foot exhibition at the Museum of the American Revolution chronicles the untold story of Irish soldier Richard St. George who, after an injury at the Battle of Germantown in 1777, returned to his native country to find it energized by the revolutionary spirit.
Where: Museum of the American Revolution, 101 S. 3rd Street
This fall, The Moore College of Art and Design debuts its multiyear Visiting Curators Initiative series, a program that creates opportunities for independent curators. The first exhibition in the series — called Or Both — includes both solo and group work featuring mediums like collage, monotype, woven wool rugs and more.
Where: Moore College of Art & Design, 1916 Race Street
For the first time, the Michener Art Museum displays the entire collection gifted to it by Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest, two of the museum’s most avid collectors. The collection features 59 Pennsylvania Impressionist paintings.
Where: Michener Art Museum, 138 S. Pine Street, Doylestown
This year, Longwood Gardens’ chrysanthemum showcase features two large-scale bamboo and natural element displays by Akane Teshigahara, headmaster of the renowned Sogetsu School of Ikebana headquartered in Japan.
Where: Longwood Gardens, 1001 Longwood Road, Kennett Square
The Rosenbach marks what would be the Moby Dick author’s 200th birthday with an exhibition of first editions and rare manuscripts, examined through the lenses of LGBTQ environmental conservation and other contemporary issues.
Where: The Rosenbach, 2008 Delancey Place
The National Museum of American Jewish History hosts the first East Coast stop for an exhibition about the second woman and first Jewish woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. On display are Justice Ginsburg’s Supreme Court robe and jabot, photos and more.
Where: National Museum of American Jewish History, 101 S. Independence Mall East
In this photography exhibition, 50 Black women explore Black masculinity and their experiences with it. The exhibition features photographic genres such as fashion, documentary and portraiture.
Where: The African American Museum in Philadelphia, 701 Arch Street
October 5-19, 2019 (select dates)
For two weeks in October, Philadelphia’s emergent Rail Park and its surrounding neighborhood hosts multi-sensory art installations, family programs, music and performances that honor the past, present and future of the historic viaduct corridor along the famed Reading Railroad.
Where: The Rail Park, Entrance at North Broad and Noble streets
Cinderella & Co. – Three Fairy Tales Reimagined examines illustrations of three popular fairytales: Cinderella, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and The Three Little Pigs. The exhibition places classic styles from 19th- and early 20th-century artists such as George Cruikshank and Walter Crane next to more unconventional works by James Marshall, Lane Smith and William Wegman in an effort to challenge traditional depictions.
The Please Touch Museum presents this traveling exhibit from the prolific children’s author-illustrator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Very Lonely Firefly, Very Quiet Cricket and more with interactives that Carle’s littlest readers can immerse themselves in.
Where: Please Touch Museum, 4231 Avenue of the Republic
The Mütter Museum opens its most ambitious exhibition to date, a multi-disciplinary, five-year recounting of a 100-year-old global pandemic. The “Spanish flu” took 50 to 100 million lives worldwide; 20,000 of those lives belonged to Philadelphians, who saw the most deaths of any major city. On display: a preserved lung of someone who had the flu and an interactive map depicting the locations of people who had the illness.
Where: Mütter Museum, 19 S. 22nd Street
The Worst-Case Scenario: Survival Experience at The Franklin Institute puts guests’ survival skills to the test starting this fall. Based on the Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook (which has sold 10 million copies), the exhibition features interactive scenarios — including leaping from a moving train and surviving an avalanche — designed to teach guests how to handle unexpected situations. Other highlights of the exhibition include the chance to hear advice by Burt Reynolds from the original audiobook and the Hall of Fame Gallery, in which guests can check out real worst-case survival success stories.
Where: The Franklin Institute, 222 N. 20th Street
An exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art explores designs for devices that could change how people live, eat, travel and even love in the future.
Where: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
The Barnes Foundation showcases painting, large sculptures, film and photography by 30 influential African American artists of the past three decades. The exhibition — which celebrates its tenth anniversary during its time at the Barnes — includes works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems, Nick Cave and Wangechi Mutu.
Where: Barnes Foundation, 2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
More than 100 works of wearable art made by more than 60 artists, most collected by New York gallerist Julie Schafler Dale, tell of the American art to wear movement, born of the 1960s and ’70s, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Perelman Building. The exhibition examines the work of pioneering artists like Debra Rapoport, Janet Lipkin and Jean Cacicedo and how their pieces relate to the social, political and cultural events and concerns of their time.
Where: Perelman Building, 2525 Pennsylvania Avenue
Opens Saturday, November 16, 2019
The next major phase of the Penn Museum’s building transformation culminates with the opening of the newly restored Mexico & Central American Gallery and Africa Galleries, each complete with new interpretive displays that offer unique new perspectives on the fascinating and diverse collections held by the storied, 130-year-old museum. Also debuting: a transformed Main Entrance Hall — featuring the famed Sphinx of Ramses II — and a striking historic renovation of the 614-seat Harrison Auditorium that pays homage to its original days, circa 1915.
Where: Penn Museum, 3260 South Street
Fifty comic strips from Charles Schulz go on display this fall at the Mercer Museum. The comics feature football and characters from the Peanuts gang, including Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Woodstock and more.
The Visit Philly Overnight Package — booked more than 190,000 times since 2001 — comes with free hotel parking (worth up to $100 in Center City Philadelphia), overnight hotel accommodations and choose-your-own-adventure perks.