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
  • The Bearded Ladies Cabaret
  • 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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W(hite)omen

Da Vinci Art Alliance

October 8 — November 15, 2026

Icebox Mall


W(hite)omen
Oct 8 — Nov 15
Da Vinci Art Alliance
at Icebox Mall
1400 N American St, Philadelphia, PA 19122

What does it mean to be a good person in America under this regime?  Through play, provocation, and an alarming number of wigs, Alyse James and Sacha Vega offer cultural criticism with humor, heart, and an ongoing question: Can a person, or people, actually apologize their way into becoming good? Can you put a price on repair?

Working across absurdist clowning, video, writing, and installation, the artists created a Marvel-esque cast of W(hite)omen Characters, who have joined forces to save the country, no, the world via workout videos promising eternal youth,  an apology subscription service promising a cure to racism, and a series of other 

well-intentioned, but failed attempts at atonement for their wrong-doings.

 Their project chronicles the grotesque and delightful machinery of morality culture: the performance of betterment, the anxiety of being ethical enough, and the contortions we make when righteousness lacks a singular, easy shape. The video exhibition will be on view at Icebox Project Space October 8–November 15, alongside a series of performances.

Gallery Hours:
10am-6pm Thursdays and Fridays
11am-6pm Saturdays
11am-5pm Sundays

Public Programs

Opening Reception: Oct 8, 6-9pm, Opening Performance: 7pm
Performance & Workshop: Oct 24, 7-8pm
Halloween Party: Oct 31, 7-9pm
Closing Reception: Nov 12 6-9pm