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This spring, museum-goers have a lot to look forward to in Greater Philadelphia.
Thanks to capacity limitations in place to help keep visitors safe, Philly’s renowned museums and attractions offer a special type of experience right now — one that may be a little quieter than usual.
And speaking of “special,” museum guests can take in some truly fascinating special exhibitions, too. There’s:
Perhaps biggest of all: the much-anticipated new galleries and public spaces set to debut at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in early May.
Snag a deal with your exhibition-viewing by booking the Visit Philly Overnight Hotel Package, which offers buy-one-get-one-free tickets purchased at the Independence Visitor Center to 19 museums and attractions, including a number of the spots on this list.
Note: Exploring Greater Philadelphia is a bit different in 2021. Masks are required in all public spaces, as is social distancing. And advance tickets are highly recommended or required at many events and attractions, some of which are operating with limited days or hours. Your best bet: Plan ahead. Look online or call to get a better sense of what experience to expect. Read more here.
Read on for our guide to the must-see exhibitions to seek out in Greater Philadelphia in spring 2021.
Through Sunday, April 25, 2021
The Museum of the American Revolution’s special exhibition features the stories of New Jersey women who legally voted in elections during and after the Revolutionary War (almost 150 years before the Constitution defined their right). Though the loophole in the law was eventually closed in 1807, the impact of their votes and their fight to maintain their suffrage echoed through generations. Pro tip: Purchase your tickets in advance, and read the attraction’s updated safety protocols to enjoy a fun and safe visit.
Where: Museum of the American Revolution, 101 S. 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA
Through Saturday, May 1, 2021
A multi-site multimedia visual exhibition from Asian Arts Initiative and artist Jeffrey Cheung, Unity at the Initiative elevates the experience of queer and trans people of color. In addition to murals, wheatpastes, window displays and more, the exhibit welcomes guests to make a reservation for their pod to skate at Asian Arts Iniatitive’s custom indoor skate park and/or add wheatpasted posters to the space’s gallery. In addition to the set up at Asian Arts Initiative, exhibits can be found at five other Philly sites, including William Way Community Center, Philly AIDS Thrift at Giovanni’s Room and more.
Where: Various locations, including Asian Arts Initiative, 1219 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA
Through Sunday, May 9, 2021
West Philly’s free-to-visit modern art museum hosts this exhibition from a University of Pennsylvania graduate examining office culture and marginalized voices in the workforce. Using mass-produced and discarded materials, employee training videos, and more, Vaughn invites exhibition-goers to reconsider and evaluate the spaces we work each day.
Where: Institute of Contemporary Art, 118 S. 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA
Through Sunday, June 6, 2021
Get a close look — a really, really close look — at the tiniest elements of discovery in this Penn Museum exhibition that lifts the veil on the archeological process. See how Persian weavers used metal in their textiles and how researchers from the museum’s Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials (CAAM) found evidence of fermentation by burning rice.
Where: Penn Museum, 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA
The Fabric Workshop and Museum’s months-long exhibition by local painter and drawer Jonathan Lyndon Chase primarily focuses on queer, Black bodies in their everyday environments. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts grad has been getting national attention after an article in GQ spotlighted him as an artist who paints “Black male homosexuality in all its stark, loving glory.”
Where: The Fabric Workshop and Museum, 1214 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA
Through Sunday, June 13, 2021
Get a behind-the-scenes look of artist Tom Judd’s work on Portal to Discovery, a new permanent installation at SEPTA’s 5th Street Station on the Market-Frankford Line. The public art, which lines the eastbound and westbound platforms, features portraits of 18th- and 19th-century Philadelphians like abolitionist and suffragette Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and clergyman Absalom Jones. The installation complements the attractions above the underground station in Philadelphia’s Historic District, and Woodmere’s exhibit presents Judd’s work in progress.
Where: Woodmere Art Museum, 9201 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA
VIEW OTHER LOCATIONS (1)
5th St Independence Hall Station, 5th Street, Philadelphia, PA
Through Saturday, June 19, 2021
This spring, picture yourself in a Puerto Rican rain forest amid the sounds of the island’s common coquí (frog) at this cool listening-based exhibit at Taller Puertorriqueño in El Centro de Oro. The soundscape of Puerto Rico combines with sculptures referencing the country’s iconic Arecibo Observatory, all from West Philadelphian artist and University of the Arts staff member Raúl Romero.
Where: Taller Puertorriqueno, 2600 N. 5th Street, Philadelphia, PA
Through Sunday, July 18, 2021
Philadelphia’s beloved science museum serves up a world-premiere exhibit that helps guests hone problem-solving skills and fosters creativity. Visitors put their creative skills to action by testing solutions to problems based on current scientific research, including designing a ball that works for astronauts in low gravity, building a sustainable neighborhood and restoring sea life to coral reefs.
Where: The Franklin Institute, 222 N. 20th Street, Philadelphia, PA
Through Sunday, August 8, 2021
In its world premiere and only U.S. showing, this groundbreaking exhibition explores the affinities between the work of Chaïm Soutine and Willem de Kooning. Organized by the Barnes Foundation and the Musée d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie, Soutine / de Kooning: Conversations in Paint presents nearly 45 works by these titans of 20th-century art and considers how Soutine’s paintings served the art of de Kooning, shaping his groundbreaking figurative/abstract works in the late 1940s and beyond.
Where: Barnes Foundation, 2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA
Through Sunday, September 5, 2021
An exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) that examines how women artists create space for themselves in their work and for their work, Taking Space: Contemporary Women Artists and the Politics of Scale features pieces from the museum’s permanent collection from more than 50 creators.
Where: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 118-128 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA
In 1841, teenager Nakahama Manjiro left his small Japanese village for a fishing trip only to be shipwrecked by an abrupt storm, stranded on a deserted island and eventually rescued by an American ship — events which led to Manjiro becoming the first Japanese person to live in the U.S. The exhibition covers Manjiro’s travels and includes his illustrated manuscript along with letters between Manjiro and the captain who rescued him at sea.
Where: The Rosenbach, 2008-2010 Delancey Place, Philadelphia, PA
Through Thursday, September 30, 2021
With more than 35,000 objects in its collection, The Mütter Museum can only put so many of them on display to the public at a time. Enter Unseen, a new photography showcase of medical and scientific oddities rarely or never seen before at the museum from photographer Nikki Johnson. Think of it as a photographic behind-the-scenes tour of one of America’s finest museums of medical history.
Where: The Mütter Museum, 19 S. 22nd Street, Philadelphia, PA
Through Monday, January 17, 2022
What did the creatures who roamed Earth before Velociraptors look like? Find out at The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University’s new exhibit, Permian Monsters: Life Before the Dinosaurs. Fossils, artwork and 3D sculptures take visitors back 290 million years to a world of odd-looking sharks and giant saber-toothed gorgonopsids. Timed tickets are available for advance purchase online, and include admission to the rest of the classic Philly attraction.
Where: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA
Ongoing
One year after its debut, Wonderspaces is back open at Fashion District Philadelphia with new immersive and interactive exhibits in a socially distanced setting. New exhibits like a hanging garden that responds to human touch and a new VR film on blindness join returning favorites across 24,000 square feet of exhibit space.
Where: Fashion District Philadelphia, 27 N. 11th Street, Philadelphia, PA
Dates vary
This spring, Doylestown’s art museum highlights:
Where: Michener Art Museum, 138 S. Pine Street, Doylestown, PA
Opens Thursday, March 25, 2021 (members); Monday, March 29, 2021 (general public)
During this immersive, multi-sensory experience at America’s first zoo, 24 enormous animatronic dinosaurs take guests on a prehistoric journey, highlighting the volcanic eruptions, asteroid strikes and other powerful occurrences that changed the earth forever. Among the life-like giants on display: T. rex, triceratops, anzu and woolly mammoth, among others.
Where: Philadelphia Zoo, 3400 W. Girard Avenue, Philadelphia, PA
Opens Friday, March 26, 2021
An exhibit at the National Liberty Museum about the National Liberty Museum, Strength & Fragility uses artwork and soundscapes to highlight the life of Irvin J. Borowsky, his founding of the museum and his love for contemporary glass art. The showstopper: The Peace Portal, a nine-foot-tall glass canopy by Ulla Darni that’s accompanied by a sound bath.
Where: National Liberty Museum, 321 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
Visitors take in the sights and smells of spring’s arrival at Longwood Gardens with fields of tulips, azaleas, wisteria, and more during the annual Spring Blooms (March 27 – May 2, 2021). After spring has sprung, Longwood’s water displays dance for visitors during the spectacular Festival of Fountains (May 6 – September 26, 2021). Pro tip: Don’t miss the Illuminated Fountain Performances on select evenings through the fall.
Where: Longwood Gardens, 1001 Longwood Road, Kennett Square, PA
Galleries open Friday, May 7, 2021
Just before the iconic Philadelphia Museum of Art debuts its much-anticipated interior expansion and renovation by Frank Gehry, the museum inaugurates the Daniel W. Dietrich II Galleries for contemporary and modern art and the Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Galleries, dedicated to American art from 1650 to 1850. The new space accomplishes many things:
Once the Gehry renovation is complete later in the spring, visitors can also enjoy a renovated Lenfest Hall; views that show off the city skyline from inside the building; and an outdoor portico overlooking the Schuylkill River.
Where: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA
New artworks debut Friday, May 7, 2021
Modern social justice issues that surround incarceration often influence Eastern State Penitentiary’s on-site art installations, including three new works debuting on May 7. Look for household objects made out of shoelaces and Mylar blankets as a commentary on the experience of detainees at the border of Mexico and the U.S.; a reflective pane of glass distorting and reflecting the architecture of a prison cell; and a formerly incarcerated artist drawing portraits of visitors, similar to works he did in prison in exchange for food and money.
Where: Eastern State Penitentiary, 2027 Fairmount Avenue, Philadelphia, PA
Dates Vary
Experience these exhibitions from Philly museums and attractions at home:
Where: Virtual, Philadelphia, PA
The Visit Philly Overnight Package — booked more than 190,000 times since 2001 — comes with free hotel parking (worth up to $100 in Center City Philadelphia), overnight hotel accommodations and choose-your-own-adventure perks.