PHILADELPHIA, PA — The Rocky statue, long a flashpoint of civic pride, pop culture, and public art debate, is about to get a sweeping reexamination.
The Philadelphia Art Museum announced it will open Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments in April 2026, a landmark exhibition that uses the city’s most famous statue as a lens to explore how monuments are created, contested, and reimagined across history. The exhibition will occupy the Dorrance Galleries and feature more than 150 works by over 50 artists, spanning more than 2,000 years.
Organized by guest curator Paul Farber, director and co-founder of Monument Lab and host of NPR/WHYY’s The Statue podcast, the exhibition blends art, sports, film, and popular culture to probe the meanings and mythologies surrounding monuments, with the Rocky statue at its core.
Through that lens, the exhibition will examine how monuments are shaped by artists, communities, and time, opening broader conversations about memory, identity, power, and representation in public spaces. Museum officials said the show will also surface under-told stories connected to the statue, including Philadelphia’s boxing legacy, immigrant neighborhoods, and ongoing debates about who and what deserves commemoration.
“The Rocky statue is the most visited and photographed public artwork in Philadelphia, attracting nearly as many annual visitors as the Statue of Liberty,” said Louis Marchesano, the Marion Boulton “Kippy” Stroud Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs and Conservation. He said the exhibition aims to reframe the narrative around Rocky and the museum steps, situating them within Philadelphia’s civic and cultural identity.
Rising Up has been researched for more than five years and in development for the past two. It will include monumental sculptures, paintings, film clips, video performances, photographs, prints, drawings, ephemera, participatory experiences, and new commissions. Featured artists include Keith Haring, Rashid Johnson, Delilah Montoya, Tavares Strachan, Hank Willis Thomas, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, Carrie Mae Weems, and artists from Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Restorative Justice Program.
An accompanying publication edited by Farber will include contributions from Philadelphia artist Alex Da Corte, former Philadelphia Eagle and Super Bowl champion Malcolm Jenkins, and film critic Carrie Rickey.
“I am honored to curate this exhibition in my hometown at this moment of cultural urgency and much-needed public discourse,” Farber said. He described the museum steps as a modern pilgrimage site and “the ultimate people’s pedestal,” saying the exhibition asks why millions visit a statue of “the most famous Philadelphian who never lived” to better understand society’s relationship with monuments.
The exhibition is timed to coincide with several major milestones, including the 50th anniversary of the Academy Award-winning Rocky film, Philadelphia’s role as a host city for World Cup matches, and the city’s Semiquincentennial celebrations. The museum said the opening will feature a pay-what-you-wish weekend and an expanded calendar of community engagement programs.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, announcing the exhibition on Rocky Day, called Rising Up a reflection of the city’s cultural vitality. She said the show explores Philadelphia’s relationship with its statues, the artists behind them, and the neighborhoods they inhabit, adding that it arrives at a pivotal moment as the city approaches its 250th anniversary.
Museum officials said Rising Up is designed not only as an exhibition, but as a public forum — one that places a familiar symbol back into conversation with history, art, and the evolving meaning of monuments in American life.
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