about
Collective Futures
is a six-week, citywide project activating Philadelphia’s network of artist-run spaces, DIY venues, and community-based initiatives. This collaboratively organized project bringing together more than 30 independent spaces and organizations, Collective Futures will unfold across the city through exhibitions, performances, workshops, and public programs from Kensington and North Chinatown to West Philadelphia, Fishtown, and Old City, between October 2 and November 15, 2026.

At its core, Collective Futures centers collective practice as a vital mode of cultural production. Across disciplines and contexts, the project highlights how artists come together to build shared platforms, experiment with new forms, and sustain creative communities.

Taking place during the 250th anniversary of the so-called United States, while many institutions in Philadelphia conjure programming around the complex histories of nation-building and democracy, Collective Futures highlights the artistic experimentation and alternative models that grassroots cultural spaces have long been building

Collective Futures is grounded in the specific conditions of Philadelphia, where a rich ecosystem of artist-run and DIY spaces has made collaborative cultural production possible. As rising costs and development reshape the city, the project affirms the importance of collective cultural life and the infrastructures that sustain it, so that our work can mobilize resources, deepen connections, and envision transformative futures.

Collective Futures is:

  • 2C Books / Marginal Utility
  • 5U Space
  • All Mutable
  • The Arts League
  • Asian Arts Initiative
  • AUTOMAT Collective
  • Batikh Batikh
  • Bearded Ladies
  • Big Ramp
  • Biomaterials Working Group
  • BYO Printmaking Collaborative
  • Center for Emerging Visual Artists
  • Cherry St Pier
  • cinéSPEAK
  • City Arts Salon LLC
  • Da Vinci Art Alliance
  • Fable Encounters
  • Fairmount House
  • FJORD
  • Future Flower Collective
  • FORTUNE
  • Gravy Studio
  • Grizzly Grizzly
  • The Halide Project
  • Hall Pass
  • Icebox Project Space
  • Jane Gallery
  • Luster Gallery
  • Memory Workers Guild
  • Muse Gallery
  • Obvious Agency
  • Paradigm Gallery + Studio
  • Peep Projects
  • Pentimenti
  • People’s Music Supply
  • Pink Noise Projects
  • Practice
  • Prism Arts
  • Second State Press
  • Space 1026
  • Teils Studio
  • Termite TV Collective
  • Tiger Strikes Asteroid Philadelphia
  • Ulises
  • Umbria Arts
  • Vox Populi

Collective Futures is made possible with the support of the Penn Treaty Special Services District (PTSSD), the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the PCI Catalyst Grant.

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Superfund Radio Greenhouse

Biomaterials Working Group

October 8 — November 15, 2026

Superfund Radio Greenhouse
Presented by Biomaterials Working Group at Icebox Project Space

Exhibition dates: Oct 8 – Nov 15
Exhibition opening: Second Thursday, Oct 8

Biomaterials Working Group presents Superfund Radio Greenhouse, an exhibition exploring contamination and deep time within the Delaware River watershed in Lenapehoking / North Philadelphia.

Superfund Radio Greenhouse picks up the thread of a site-specific activation presented by Eco-Social Series (ESSSSSS) at the Metal Bank Superfund Site and RAIR in Tacony in April 2026. Participants were invited to walk the perimeter of a remediated superfund site while listening to a five-channel radio broadcast.

Re-imagined for a gallery space, Superfund Radio Greenhouse features micro-radio broadcasts, video, textiles, and bio-aggregate and bio-plastic sculptures. Quilts, sandbags, and structures are produced in materials sourced from local waste streams. Textile sculptures are constructed using yardage created at the Fabric Workshop and Museum and printed in plant-based inks. Sound works ruminate on the past, present, and future of a contaminated piece of land.

Gallery Hours:

Wednesdays 6–9PM — “salad bar”
Thursdays 6–9PM
Fridays 12–9PM
Saturdays 12–9PM
Sundays 12–6PM

About The Biomaterials Working Group

The Biomaterials Working Group (BWG), is an art and research collective. We share an interest in exploring sustainable alternatives to plastics and toxic materials conventionally used in studio art practices, as well as a broad curiosity about the transformative potential of everyday materials used in unconventional ways.

Our various previous avenues of exploration include: algae-based bioplastics, eggshell concrete, fermentation, natural pigments, kombucha leather, saltwater radio antennae, and more.