Collective Futures

is a city-wide celebration of Philadelphia’s vibrant network of artist-run spaces, DIY venues, and community-driven art initiatives. Taking place over six weeks in fall 2026, the festival will showcase the creative power of collectivity through exhibitions, workshops, performances, and public programs that engage both local and national audiences.

Bringing together more than 25 independent spaces and organizations, Collective Futures highlights the vital role of grassroots initiatives in shaping civic dialogue, cultural innovation, and community resilience. With a focus on supporting underrepresented artists and amplifying local voices, the festival will activate neighborhoods across the city—including Kensington, North Chinatown, West Philly, Fishtown, and Old City—creating accessible, neighborhood-based cultural experiences.

Coinciding with the celebrations surrounding America’s 250th birthday, Collective Futures situates Philadelphia’s artist-run ecosystem within a broader national conversation about democracy, creativity, and collective care.

At its core, the project is a multifaceted exploration of collective practices, storytelling, and the intersections of art, community, and infrastructure. Rooted in collaboration and experimentation, it seeks to amplify diverse perspectives while fostering connections between local and national networks. Through exhibitions, publications, and public programs, Collective Futures investigates the inner workings, histories, and creative processes of collectives—centering storytelling as a tool for cultural preservation and expression. Using oral histories, printmaking, and site-specific artworks, the festival will illuminate the interplay between artists, communities, and their environments.

By combining critical reflection with artistic production, Collective Futures aims to create a blueprint for equitable and sustainable collaboration—reimagining how art can mobilize resources, deepen connections, and envision transformative futures.

Collective Futures

is:

The Bearded Ladies Cabaret

The Bearded Ladies Cabaret is a queer arts organization that sits on your lap and sings you a story. Whether it’s an opera, a home-made cabaret, a musical walking tour, or a show on a truck, we employ song, spectacle, storytelling, and heart to welcome audiences into moments of joy, healing, and subversion. Through sharing our original pieces and creating bespoke platforms for performance at home in Philadelphia, nationally, and abroad, we nurture artistic connection for a community of misfits, rabble-rousers, chanteuses and the people who love and need them.

Welcome to the Bearded Ladies’ Hairport, an interactive installation & performance series built on 16-years of accumulated baggage from a queer cabaret company devoted to art, care, mess, and community. While you’re waiting for a flight that may never take off, pause and (tran)sit for a moment to figure out where you’ve been and where you are going. Unpack your baggage and rifle through some of ours. You may recognize something as your own, or find something you never knew you were carrying. Touch things. Linger. Spend some time in the in-between: an unfinished journey, an emotional layover, an unexpected delay, a moment of transition. Carry on, if you want.

Made for anyone who has ever lost a bag, gotten stuck, or missed a (metaphoric) flight, this trans(formational) installation uses sixteen years of artistic baggage to ask: how do you know it’s time to move on when you don’t know where you’re going?