Free admission all day
Perelman Building only
2525 Pennsylvania Avenue

Initiating artist Jeanne van Heeswijk and the project's artistic team including Phoebe Bachman, Kirtrina Baxter, Shari Hersh, Nehad Khader, Mabel Negrete (CNS), Damon Reaves, Amanda Sroka, and Denise Valentine join the Museum in welcoming you and the PHLA community partners to celebrate the project's arrival to the Perelman Building after an active season of programs and actions across the city.

Open House
10 a.m.–4:00 p.m. Family-friendly activities, artist-led workshops, seed-sharing, poetry reading, and storytelling

Community Celebration
4:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m. Experience the energy of Philadelphia Assembled with live music, a featured performance by sound artist Moor Mother, and light food and refreshments

Assemble and Illuminate
8:00 p.m. Gather in the park across the street to see The Illuminator Collective light up the Perelman Building

RSVP to philamuseum.org/phlevents. All ages are welcome.



FULL SCHEDULE > > > > > >

Open House Schedule

10:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. The PHLA Kitchen Opens
Taste the delicious new menu created for Philadelphia Assembled by the culinary artists behind the PHLA Kitchen. Realized in partnership with W/N W/N Coffee Bar, the PHLA Kitchen assembles twelve Philadelphia cooks and storytellers to share their culinary interpretations of survival, resistance and victory with guests over a communal lunch at the Perelman Cafe, open Tuesday through Sunday 10-2:30 through December 10th. Menu #1, titled SURVIVAL (September 9 – October 8), will feature dishes curated by project collaborators Catzie Vilayphonh, Khaliah D. Pitts, Shivon Love and Saigay Sheriff.

11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Native dances and music from Mexico for farming and land cultivation
Join Reconstructions collaborator Brujo de la Mancha for a workshop and performance that explore different connections to the land and farming through the rituals of dance and music from the Native indigenous point of view. This performance will take place in the Perelman Gardens. The performance will be followed by seed activities in Perelman Gardens with Experimental Farm Network and Urban Creators throughout the afternoon.

11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Coloring Make + Take Workshop
Drop-in for a family-friendly coloring workshop with PHLA collaborators and illustrators Bri Barton and Charlyn Griffith in relation to the Philadelphia Assembled City Panorama that lines the wall of the Perelman Atrium.

1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Make Music Philly
Enjoy the sounds of Make Music Philly, a performance collective and pop-up festival that champions open-access, DIY sounds. This musical performance will take place in front of the Perelman Building at the Mobile Futures Institute bus.

1:00 – 4:00 p.m. In Conversation: The Alumni Ex-Offenders Association
Join project collaborators Reconstruction Inc. and the Alumni Ex-Offenders Association (AEA) in an interactive dialogue exploring the evolution of mass incarceration on a personal, familial and communal level that speaks to the works hanging inside the gallery walls. This conversation will take place in the Perelman Galleries.

1:30 – 3:00 p.m. World Building Activity
Collectively imagine and occupy new worlds with Futures collaborators Marlon MacAllister and Angelina Conti, who will lead a world-building workshop in the Perelman Atrium based on a post-apocalyptic writing prompt.

2:00 – 4:00 p.m. PHLA Soapbox Performances on the Paul Robeson Stage
Enjoy poetry readings and intimate performances by a number of Philadelphia Assembled collaborators, including Carlos Basualdo, live from atop the dedicated soapbox in the Perelman Atrium.


Community Celebration Schedule

4:00 p.m. Aztec Dance Performance with Ocelotezcalt
Watch a lively dance performance by Aztec dance company, Ocelotezcalt, connecting rituals, concepts, and customs of traditional Aztec dance. Engaging song, dance, and life’s essential elements – water, fire, earth, and air – the performance speaks to the synchony of life and our surroundings. This event will take place in the Perelman Atrium.

4:00 - 7:00 p.m. Nyambi Naturals Products Feature
Meet maker Nyambi Royster of Nyambi Naturals in the PHLA store for a mini trunk show featuring hand-made beauty, skin, and care products according to their mission to create balance through education and provide holistic products of integrity for the skin, body and mind.

5:00 p.m. Poetry Reading
Join poet, educator, and sanctuary collaborator Trapeta Mason for an intimate soapbox reading on the Paul Robeson Stage in the Perelman Atrium.

5:30 p.m. City Panorama Highlights
Collaborator and Mural Arts project manager Shari Hersh and fellow collaborators will lead a tour of the Philadelphia Assembled City Panorama, discussing the genesis of the images and dates selected for the panorama by project collaborators, and offering a preview of the community workshops that will follow as part of the fall program – each contributing additional content to the panorama and the histories that it visualizes. This event will take place in the Perelman Atrium.

6:45 p.m. Grounding Exercise
Participate in an audience grounding exercise, led by interfaith minister and project collaborator Rhetta Morgan, as we begin the Perelman Auditorium activities for the evening. This event will take place in the Perelman Atrium.

7:00 p.m. Collective Thanks
The PHLA artistic team will be joined on the stage of the Perelman Auditorium by Timothy Rub, the George D. Widener Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, for a collective and collaborative welcome and word of thanks.

7:15 p.m. Moor Mother featured performance
Experimental musician, poet, and artist Moor Mother performs works from her award winning debut album, Fetish Bones. Moor Mother will be joined by local musicians and drummers from the Sovereignty atmosphere. This performance will take place in the Perelman Auditorium.

7:45 p.m. Expressing Sovereignty
Sovereignty collaborators will join Moor Mother on the Perelman Auditorium stage for a music circle that seeks to express their process of being a part of PHLA these past three years.


Assemble + Illuminate Schedule

8:00 p.m. Storyteller and Reconstructions collaborator Denise Valentine will lead the audience across the street to the park for a special light ceremony on the façade of the Perelman Building by NYC-based art activist collective The Illuminator Collective.