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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Light Across Landscapes

Gravy Studio

October 2 — November 1, 2026

Dates:
Vermont Workshops: August 7-9th, 2026
Philly Workshops: September 12th at Cherry Street Pier during the 20/20 Photo Festival

Collective Futures Festival at Cherry Street Pier Gallery
Gravy Studio and Future Flower Collective

‘Light Across Landscapes’
Oct. 2 – Nov. 1
Opening Reception: Friday, October 2 6-8pm

Gravy Studio is launching a photography artist exchange ‘Light Across Landscapes‘, that fosters creative connections between photographers in Vermont and Philadelphia. The inaugural program will bring artists together through cyanotype and anthotype workshops held at High Pastures in Vermont during the summer of 2026 and at Philadelphia’s Cherry Street Pier as part of the 20/20 Photo Festival in September 2026. Artwork created through these collaborative workshops will be presented in an exhibition at Cherry Street Pier during the Collective Futures Festival in October 2026.  

We will be partnering with former Fishtown gallery owner and artist Emily Carris Duncan who currently runs High Pastures Studio and Retreat in Vermont with partner and musician Corey Carris Duncan.  High Pastures is an artist retreat and cultural conservancy offering respite, collaboration, and inclusive space for artistic exploration in Whitingham, Vermont supporting the work of creatives particularly artists of color and those in the LGBTQ+ community.  For Gravy, maintaining relationships with artists we have collaborated with over the years—even as they pursue new opportunities elsewhere—is an important way of strengthening creative networks and sharing the vitality, creativity, and opportunities of Philadelphia’s arts community.

Photo by Ellen Mitchell from the 20/20 Photo Festival