With Philadelphia set to take center stage during America’s 250th anniversary celebrations, Brandywine Workshop and Archives is inviting visitors to explore a question that has shaped the nation’s past — and continues to define its future.
“Who is included in ‘We’ the People?”
On display now through Oct. 26, “We” The People, organized by BWA Curator Alicia DeLarge and independent curator Zindzi Harley, draws from Brandywine Workshop and Archives’s print collection to explore the communities, migrations, and cultural exchanges that shaped Philadelphia across centuries.
“We” The People is a visual timeline of historical moments and cultural arrivals rather than geography. The exhibition traces Indigenous histories and pre-1776 land stewardship, 19th century Black Philadelphia and self-determined communities, industrialization and European immigration in the 1800s, the Great Migration era and movement of Black communities northward through 1970, African Diaspora connections and cultural exchange, Puerto Rican, Caribbean, and Latin American arrivals, Asian diasporas, entrepreneurship, and cultural exchange, and BWA’s role as a center for international artistic exchange.
“‘We the People’ has always been both an invitation and a question,” said DeLarge. “This exhibition asks visitors to think about who shaped Philadelphia, whose stories have historically been excluded from dominant narratives, and how art helps us better understand the complexity of belonging, identity, and community.”
Works by artists from across generations and geographies are featured in the exhibition, including American painter Jacob Lawrence, artist and author Faith Ringgold, conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas, Jamaican-born interdisciplinary artist Andrea Chung, Congolese artist Alexandre Mwilambwe Kyungu, Native American artist Edgar Heap of Birds, painter and educator Benny Andrews, and Cuban artist Ibrahim Miranda.
Along with many other artists in the collection, these works reveal how printmaking was used to document migration, preserve cultural memories, and reflect the identities and experiences that shaped Philadelphia. Visitors will encounter offset lithographs, screen prints, intaglios, woodcuts, digitally carved works, and other print-based media that span more than four decades of artistic production.
Visitors are encouraged to participate in the exhibition through an interactive map installation where they can reflect on their own histories of migration, ancestry, and neighborhood identity by connecting their country or region of origin with the Philadelphia neighborhood they call home, using yarn and pushpins.
“For more than five decades, Brandywine Workshop and Archives has created space for artists and communities from around the world to connect through printmaking,” said Rebecca Morrison, Executive Director. “This exhibition reflects the international and collaborative spirit that has shaped both Philadelphia and our organization.”
Admission to “We” The People is free, and Brandywine Workshop and Archives welcomes visitors by appointment. Call 267-908-2775 or email prints@brandywineworkshop.org to schedule a visit.
Forty-eight hours’ notice is required for individual visitors and small groups. If you plan to bring four or more people, please provide one week’s notice.
To learn more about the artists in this exhibition, visit Artura.org, BWA’s educational digital database for public viewing.
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Keywords
Brandywine Workshop and Archives,
We The People,
Philadelphia,
America250,
Art Exhibition,
Arts & Culture,
Migration,
Identity,
Printmaking,
Jacob Lawrence,
Faith Ringgold,
Hank Willis Thomas,
Alicia DeLarge,
Zindzi Harley,
Museums