WHAT NOW?

This spring, Philadelphia will play host to What Now: 2026, a citywide, multidisciplinary art festival, running May 27-July 3. This ambitious event is the brainchild of ArtPhilly, an organization that seeks to amplify Philadelphia as a unique crucible for arts and culture, connecting audiences to each other through ongoing artistic programming, commissions of original work and this recurring festival. We chatted with two of the main forces behind ArtPhilly about its genesis, their goals for What Now and what makes this city a great place for art.

Bill Adair, Creative and Executive Director of ArtPhilly (BA): Everyone understands that Philly is a history town, everyone understands that Philly is a sports town, but we know that Philly is also an arts town. One of our goals for our festival is to change people’s attitudes, right? It’s to have people begin to think of Philly as one of the most important arts and cultural cities in America and in the world.

Katherine Sachs, Founder and Chair of ArtPhilly (KS): Philly has it all, and 2026 is the moment for us to show everybody what’s here all the time. We just felt that the semiquincentennial was a moment that we didn’t want Philly to waste. And I thought,
“What do we have here that is absolutely spectacular that people need to know more about? What can we show people when they come to town? Because it’s going to be a big year.”

BA: Well, and we decided to do this ourselves, right? We decided not to connect to any of the official celebrations because we felt like we’d have more freedom: more artistic freedom, more production freedom, more freedom with fundraising if we handled this ourselves. We’re an independent organization, scrappy just like Philadelphia itself. So, at some point, it made sense for us to create a festival. That was gonna be the best way to get people’s attention during 2026.

KS: We needed a concentration of activity around the whole city to make Philly come alive and to give people lots of choices and opportunities to experience what was here. People have to know that the arts happen all over Philly — we have Kensington, Germantown, Old City, the Avenue Of The Arts and West Philly. We brought in 80 curatorial collaborators. We narrowed it down to 17. They brought us 45 projects.

BA: [And] they were all Philadelphians. They were different disciplines, different neighborhoods, different ages, many different kinds of people.

KS: We also wanted everything to be new. We didn’t want to redo anything. And we wanted everything to have a Philly flavor. If an international artist was coming to Philly, great. They have to work with Philly artists, which is a good thing. And that was very important. What they also showed us is we can expand what art means. In that, this multidisciplinary citywide festival will have more than four dance projects, more than 10 music projects, more than five theater and poetry, more than six visual arts, three films, two culinary ones, fabulous food and three that deal with climate. So, it’s a great roster.

BA: One of my favorite things about Philly is how complicated we are. We’re scrappy, we’re gritty, but we’ve also got these incredible legacy institutions like Independence Hall, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Philadelphia Art Museum. So, it’s a really interesting combination of things that creates this “soup” or sauce. And I think we’re trying to figure out a way to celebrate all of that. Everything from the world-renowned, world-respected institutions to a neighborhood project that maybe no one knows outside the area but is super special. Because Philly is ultimately a city of neighborhoods. Every neighborhood has its own little identity, and we’re trying to tap into that.

KS: We want people to think differently. We want people to become more aware, and you’ve gotta get out from the expected and into the unexpected. Because community is an important part of this. Highlighting the communities, working with the communities, collaborating with community organizations, that’s all very important to us. This is really an invitation to say: Philly is going to be the place to be in 2026. One thing that is truly special about it is that we are going to do it again. So, it is something that will begin in 2026, and it will continue.

BA: We can’t just do it once. What Now is broad but specific. It’s perfect for this particular time in our country’s history. But we’re actually thinking that maybe our festival will always be the “What Now Festival,” right?

KS: We’re always going to wonder “what now.” We’re always going to wonder and be curious about what’s next.

BLACKTRONIKA: PHILADELPHIA NOW AND THEN

MUSIC
Project Collaborators: King Britt

This weeklong series of performances, workshops and discussions is a tribute to King Britt’s Philly roots. The celebrated musician, producer, curator and professor has long worked to place his hometown on the global electronic music map. His course
“Blacktronika: Afrofuturism in Electronic Music” — a celebration of the contributions of innovators of color to the genre — has grown into a festival with events in Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Knoxville and Paris. This project’s slate features Dexter Wansel; Black Lily Tribute featuring Tracey Moore; Tasty Treats hosted by Stacy Wilson with Mike Nice and surprise guests; Body Rock w/ Illvibe Collective Beat Society hosted by Hezekiah; Rockers hosted by Moor Mother & Back2Basics and King Britt himself.

FROM OUR FOREFATHERS: CLIMATE CRISIS THROUGH MUSEUM TOURS

ENVIRONMENT | INSTALLATION

Project Collaborators: Aislinn Pentecost- Farren, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Independence Seaport Museum & Science History Institute

Explore the history of climate change through Philadelphia’s museums. Guide Aislinn Pentecost-Farren underlines America’s outsized contribution to this crisis through a sequence of encounters with objects that were present at its origins, including a stove made by enslaved ironworkers and an oil painting of a steam turbine. This project encourages a fresh look at existing exhibitions, revealing the unseen origins of this impending catastrophe hidden within accepted historical narratives, from Indigenous dispossession to the industrial revolution.

IN CASE OF FIRE, SPEAK

DANCE | INSTALLATION

Project Collaborators: PHILADANCO!, Martha Graham Dance Company, Tommie-Waheed Evans & Ain Gordon

Martha Graham’s 1938 “American Document” was a seminal work. Choreographer Tommie-Waheed Evans used archival material alongside new musical composition, writing and visual design to create his response. It all comes back to Graham’s essential question: “What is an American?” Co-commissioned by Penn Live Arts, this will mark the first collaboration between the Martha Graham Dance Company and PHILADANCO! Framed by the sonic design of Uwazi Zamani, dancers from both companies invite us to imagine what an American voice could be in this semiquincentennial year. “in case of fire, speak” also includes an exhibit of archival material that showcases the two organizations’ respective histories and the creative process of this new work, curated by Ain Gordon and designed by Azsaneé Truss with support from the Sachs Program for Arts Innovation.

LONG LIVE THE QUEEN: A HER-STORY OF DRAG

MUSIC THEATER

Project Collaborators: Cookie Diorio, Andrea Clearfield, ANNA Crusis Feminist Choir, Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus, Voices of Pride & Orchestra 2001.

This flamboyant work exists at a unique intersection of opera, multimedia cantata, drag, cabaret and performance art. It boasts three distinct acts, a drag soloist, four opera singers, three LGBTQ+ choruses, a chamber orchestra and several very exciting costume changes. A collaboration between composer Andrea Clearfield and drag artist/opera singer Cookie Diorio, Long Live the Queen makes explicit all of the deep connections between opera and drag, from the role of “divas,” to the over-the-top sensibility, to the gender play.

REWILDING PHILADELPHIA

ENVIRONMENT | INSTALLATION | COMMUNITY

Project Collaborators: Pete Angevine, New Kensington Community Development Corporation, Mural Arts Philadelphia & the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University

Philadelphia has a new forest. A pocket-sized one. Creative Producer Pete Angevine is using the Myawaki Method to transform a vacant lot in Kensington into a community green space. This scalable, replicable methodology establishes the conditions that we see in the wild and then gets out of the way while nature does its thing. There are numerous ecological and social benefits to these pocket forests: cooling, increased biodiversity, stormwater remediation, carbon sequestration, soil remediation, and community resilience, among many others. This project will live on long past What Now: 2026, but visitors can come for a Tree Planting Festival; work by artist-in-residence Pedro Ospina; creative and educational programming; and job opportunities for neighbors — they will be trained to maintain the space and study its ecological impacts. Picture this: In 10 years, the forest will have matured into a cool, shady, dense, biodiverse gem teeming with life and activity. This project represents a universal truth: With (bio)diversity comes abundance.

SAIL THROUGH THIS TO THAT

VISUAL | ART | STORYTELLING

Project Collaborators: Indira Allegra, William Way LGBT Community Center & Delaware River Waterfront Corporation

In this moving work, Indira Allegra explores the lives of Ona Judge, a seamstress and bondswoman who styled Martha Washington and escaped to freedom in 1796, and Rem’mie Fells, an aspiring fashion designer and trans woman who was tragically killed in 2020. In partnership with Philadelphia’s Delaware River Waterfront Corporation, William Way LGBT Community Center and the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Allegra deployed 18th century techniques and fabrics to create three schooner sails inspired by Fells’ vibrant aesthetic. Sail Through This to That will culminate in a community-led procession that follows Judge’s escape path to the Delaware River. The sails will be exhibited on a schooner docked at Spruce Street Harbor Park; the boat will also host the project’s public programming.

THE BASIL BIGGS PROJECT 
THEATER
Project Collaborators: Anna Deavere Smith

In honor of the nation’s 250th anniversary, eminent playwright, actor and professor Anna Deavere Smith has written an original play. The Basil Biggs Project traces the life of Smith’s great-great-grandfather — a farmer, veterinarian and prominent Gettysburg figure. Biggs received a contract to disinter and rebury the Union dead following the battle of Gettysburg, the bloodiest clash of the Civil War. Smith uses available archival material to imagine how the Biggs family and their friends met the challenges of a tumultuous and transformative time. Directed by Leonard Foglia and staged in collaboration with designer Ann Hould-Ward, The Basil Biggs Project is emblematic of Smith’s longstanding mission to integrate historical fact and artistic imagination, weaving individual stories into cohesive reflections that celebrate American resilience and inspire discussion. Biggs is produced in conjunction with theater artists LaNeshe Miller-White and Zuhairah Gibbs, and historian Andrew Dalton, CEO of the Adams County Historical Society.

www.artphilly.org