Philadelphia, PA, April 7, 2026—The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) is pleased to announce a season of exhibitions and projects organized on the occasion of the U.S. Semiquincentennial. The presentations feature a group exhibition of works from the FWM collection created in collaboration with Artists-in-Residence over a period of decades, as well as a solo exhibition of quilts by the Philadelphia-based artist Jesse Krimes developed in partnership with Mural Arts Philadelphia. Off-site projects by artists indira allegra and Odili Donald Odita—each created in collaboration with FWM—will feature major public works and installations commissioned by ArtPhilly for the What Now: 2026 Festival in Philadelphia.
Opening to the public this spring, the projects each contend with the complexities of American life. They expand on themes of freedom and the right to self-determination, identity and belonging, histories and mythologies, and most significantly, whose voices are valued, amplified, and remembered. Each project will be accompanied by a thoughtful roster of programs designed to engage the public more deeply.
ON VIEW AT THE FABRIC WORKSHOP AND MUSEUM
Some American Dreams
April 15–June 14, 2026
The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Second Floor Gallery
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. The exhibition takes its name from June Jordan’s 1986 essay “Waking Up in the Middle of Some American Dreams,” in which the poet calls for a multiplicity of American dreams rather than a singular paradigm.
Some American Dreams features 27 works by 20 artists employing a range of media—including furniture, sculpture, textiles and clothing, video, and photography—and representing four decades of making at FWM. The works meditate on themes of indigeneity and race, alternative origin stories, landscape and the environment, the national figure as icon, and images of cultural affiliation. Renditions of prominent historical figures—such as Frederick Douglass, George and Martha Washington, Harriet Jacobs, and Muhammad Ali—are interspersed with reworkings of patriotic symbols.
Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds’s abstract scarves render Cheyenne and Arapaho Nations’ reservation lands as vibrant patchworks of color, while Becky Howland’s maximalist table setting condemns environmental exploitation through depictions of toxic waste and poisoned waterways. In works by the Rev. Howard Finster, Rose B. Simpson, and Luis Jiménez, the mythological dimensions of the Americas emerge as printed visitations from angels and aliens, a ceramic earth mother goddess, and volcanic deities on low-rider car seats. Through recognizable hairstyles, a graffiti tag, and a cherished local musical act launched to stardom, other works by Alison Saar, Mario Ybarra, Jr., and Yinka Shonibare CBE RA consider visual markers of communal identity.
The artists represented in this exhibition break down borders and categorical distinctions to propose a polyphony of American dreams shaped by hybridity, friction, and affinity. They ask: what if “America” is not one project, but many? And how might these Americas be affirmed, resisted, or remade, in Jordan’s words, to envision “one new day after another?”
Full Artist List
Laurie Anderson, S.A. Bachman, Nicole Eisenman, Rev. Howard Finster, Renée Green, Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, Becky Howland, Luis Jiménez, Tommy Joseph, Glenn Ligon, Donald Lipski, James Luna, Robert Pruitt, Tim Rollins and K.O.S., Alison Saar, Betye Saar, Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, Rose B. Simpson, Kara Walker, and Mario Ybarra Jr.
About the Curator
Some American Dreams is curated by Hilde Nelson, FWM Curatorial Fellow.
Jesse Krimes: Elegy Quilts
May 1–November 1, 2026
The Fabric Workshop and Museum, First Floor Gallery
Presented in partnership with Mural Arts Philadelphia, this exhibition features selections from Jesse Krimes’s Elegy Quilt series (2020–present), a body of work that renders the personal effects of the U.S. carceral system through portraits of domestic spaces. Drawing on his own experience with incarceration, Krimes gathers donated clothing and textile fragments from currently and formerly incarcerated individuals and reconstitutes them into intricately patterned quilts that meditate on memory, loss, alienation, and comfort. Continuing in the spirit of American quilting traditions, the works situate these narratives within broader histories of communal making and resilience.
To produce the works on view, Krimes invited incarcerated collaborators to describe a memory of home. He then prompted them to choose a representative animal figure as a symbolic stand-in for the incarcerated person. The quilts, often titled after U.S. prisons and jails, become tactile archives grappling with estrangement, yearning, and the complexities of release and reintegration. Empty domestic interiors and absent figures evoke both loss and the persistence of belonging. Animal presences serve as both proxies and protectors for unseen subjects, reasserting the humanity of those obscured by incarceration. Through this process, Krimes reframes everyday materials into narratives of dignity and connection, prompting critical reflection on the psychological and material costs of incarceration.
This exhibition debuts Riverside, a newly commissioned quilt informed by Krimes’s work with Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Restorative Justice program, which supports people whose lives have been impacted by incarceration. Through a series of workshops with the artist, eight young adults reflected on their own experiences to create a series of collages. Focusing on three elements—a piece of furniture, an animal, and a personal object symbolizing identity—each collage becomes an allegorical self-portrait that shifts from remembrance toward imagining future selves. Krimes has synthesized these designs into a single quilt that amplifies the voices and visions of Restorative Justice program participants.
The workshops and collages also serve as studies for a forthcoming large-scale mural by Krimes to be unveiled at 990 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, in spring 2026. By presenting the Elegy Quilts alongside these developmental materials, the exhibition offers an intimate look into Krimes’s collaborative process and underscores the transformative power of community as a source of resistance, care, and collective possibility.
About the Curator
Jesse Krimes: Elegy Quilts is curated by Kelly Shindler, FWM Executive Director, with Hilde Nelson, FWM Curatorial Fellow.
About the Artist
Jesse Krimes is a multimedia artist whose work examines systems of power and control, with a focus on criminal and racial justice. While serving a six-year prison sentence, he produced and smuggled out multiple bodies of work, established art programs, and co-founded artist collectives. He is the Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Art & Advocacy, the first national organization dedicated to supporting justice-impacted artists. Krimes received an Emmy Award for the documentary Art and Krimes by Krimes. He has presented solo exhibitions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and his work has been exhibited at MoMA PS1, Palais de Tokyo, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum, among others. He is a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, Creative Capital, Rauschenberg Foundation, and the Art for Justice Fund. His work is held in major public and private collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he is the first living artist formerly incarcerated to enter the Museum’s collection. He is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
Collage Artists
This exhibition features collages by Hannah Bickert, December “Ablessing” Collins, Tajee Flamer, Tasheema Flamer, Joyzoé Montes-Paris, Tysean Moore, Eleonore “Tiny” Noncent, and Rahsaan Standback. Each was created by the artists through a series of workshops led by Jesse Krimes in partnership with Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Restorative Justice program.
About Mural Arts Restorative Justice Program
Mural Arts Philadelphia is the nation’s largest public art program, dedicated to the belief that art ignites change. Mural Arts has united artists and communities through a collaborative and equitable process, creating over 4,000 artworks that have transformed public spaces and individual lives. Mural Arts aims to empower people, stimulate dialogue, and build bridges to mutual understanding through projects that attract artists from Philadelphia and around the world and programs that focus on youth education, restorative justice, mental health and wellness, and public art preservation. Popular mural tours offer a firsthand glimpse into the inspiring stories behind Mural Arts’ iconic and unparalleled collection, earning Philadelphia worldwide recognition as the “Mural Capital of the World.” Philadelphia was recently named the number one city for Best Street Art by USA Today. For more information, call 215.685.0750 or visit muralarts.org.
ARTPHILLY WHAT NOW: 2026 FESTIVAL PROJECTS
indira allegra: Sail Through This to That
May 28–July 30, 2026
Spruce Street Harbor, 301 S Christopher Columbus Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19106
In Sail Through This to That, artist indira allegra explores the lives of Ona Judge, the seamstress and bondswoman who styled Martha Washington and escaped to freedom in 1796, and the aspiring fashion designer and trans woman Dominique Rem’mie Fells who was tragically killed in 2020. In partnership with Philadelphia’s Delaware River Waterfront Corporation, ArtPhilly, William Way LGBT Community Center, and The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Allegra will use 18th century techniques and fabrics reflecting Fells’s vibrant aesthetic to create three schooner sails.
To create the triptych of sails, allegra teamed up with the FWM Studio and Traditional Rigging Co. in Appleton, ME, which specializes in historically accurate sailmaking. The design weaves the histories of Ona Judge and Rem’mie Fells through the symbolic imagery of healing plants found along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, where their fates intertwine.
The sunset-colored sails inspired by Fell’s strong palette feature a patchwork botanical motif referencing chintz, a patterned, floral textile that Judge likely used while creating Martha Washington’s gowns. allegra’s design incorporates plants that grow along Philadelphia’s riverbanks, including ginkgo—one of the world’s oldest surviving trees known for their resilience—and mugwort—an herb associated with both spiritual and medicinal healing properties. The sails are united by an image of a sewing needle, stitching together both women’s relationships to their craft and community.
In imagining this exchange, allegra said, “Ona offers Rem’mie the form of a sail to carry the story of her radiant spirit beyond the circumstances surrounding her death. Rem’mie in turn offers the practice of sewing for the pleasure of self-expression to Ona, who was once enslaved as a seamstress and bondswoman.”
Sail Through This to That will culminate in a community-led procession that follows Judge’s escape to the Delaware River. The sails will be exhibited from May 28–July 30, 2026 on The North Wind schooner throughout ArtPhilly’s What Now: 2026 festival. This 57-foot schooner will also host the project’s public programming at the Spruce Street Harbor along the Delaware River.
About the Artist
indira allegra is a conceptual artist and founder of Cazimi Studio. Using weaving as a framework to creatively transform tension within different sites, the studio emphasizes performance, publication and the integration of spiritual care as preferred design solutions. Allegra’s work has been featured in The Art Newspaper, Artnet, Art Journal, BOMB Magazine, e-flux, ARTFORUM and in exhibitions and performances at the Museum of Arts and Design, Blaffer Museum, Center for Craft Creativity and Design, Museum of the African Diaspora, and SFMOMA among others. They are the author of Tension Studies and Dispersal of a Feeling: Bloodnotes on Choreography and Illness (Sming Sming Books). Allegra has been the recipient of numerous awards, including United States Artists Fellowship, Burke Prize, Creative Capital, Gerbode Choreographer Award, and CripTech Metaverse Fellowship.
Support
Sail Through This to That was originally co-commissioned by ArtPhilly and the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation as part of the What Now: 2026 festival. Major support for Sail Through This to That has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund.
Odili Donald Odita: Freedom is…
Opens May 30, 2026
Broad Street Love, 315 S Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19107
Freedom is… is a new monumental ArtPhilly commission created by the Nigerian-American born artist Odili Donald Odita on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. This project, made in commemoration to the city of Philadelphia as the “birthplace of America” as well as being a sanctuary city, takes the form of a triptych of sheer fabric banners suspended from the vaulted ceiling of Broad Street Love’s historic site of sanctuary. Bathed in natural light from Broad Street Love’s stained-glass windows, this commission pulsates with abstract shapes in vibrant colors inspired by the artwork’s title, Freedom is….
For Odita, this site-specific artwork, created in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, signals the momentous potential shared by those whose gifts are often underserved and overlooked. “For me,” Odili writes, “this anniversary offers the opportunity to lift the voices of those who will become our country’s future.” Building on this theme, Odita has designed an evening of spoken word responding to the artwork’s poetic prompt, “Freedom is…” that features Philadelphia’s youth poets and the communities served by Broad Street Love.
About the Artist
Odili Donald Odita (b. 1966, Enugu, Nigeria) creates abstract paintings and installations that heighten awareness of color and space as sensory and culturally embedded experiences. Drawing on Africanist pattern, modernist design, and conceptual positions, Odita channels the ways memory, philosophy, and political contexts shape perception through dynamic, site-responsive compositions. Selected projects and exhibitions include Songs from Life, a large-scale commission for the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (on view through 2027), and A Survey of Context, a mid-career survey at the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, Birmingham, AL. Solo exhibitions have been presented at Contemporary Dayton, OH; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; ICA Miami, FL; and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC. Odita has been featured in group exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum, NY; Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA; Baltimore Museum of Art, MD; and the 52nd Venice Biennale, Italy, among others. His work is included in public collections at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.; Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL; and The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY. Odita lives in Philadelphia where he teaches at Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University. He is represented by David Kordansky Gallery.
About ArtPhilly
ArtPhilly’s What Now: 2026 represents a major collaborative moment in Philadelphia and the surrounding region. This city-wide multi-disciplinary festival will foreground Philadelphia’s creative voices, placing artists, neighborhoods and arts organizations at the center of critical civic dialogue on our country’s past, present, and– most importantly– future. ArtPhilly’s collaborators include WXPN, WRTI, The Museum of the American Revolution, The Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts, PHILADANCO!, BalletX, Mural Arts Philadelphia, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, and more.
History and art are integral to Philadelphia’s identity. Over six weeks, What Now: 2026 will weave these legacies together by commissioning and presenting new work that responds to the complexities of our country’s 250th anniversary. Over 30 original commissions will be presented, including performances ranging from music, dance, theater, visual arts, film, culinary arts, and storytelling. By seeking out and supporting imaginative collaborations across communities and institutions ArtPhilly will generate new art and amplify the creativity and ingenuity of our talented artists. ArtPhilly will demonstrate that Philadelphia is the destination for the 250th anniversary and an important cultural and historical destination for any year. For more information, visit artphilly.org.
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