For LGBT Americans, 1976 was a time of both great progress and continued injustices. Pennsylvania governor Milton Shapp’s executive order outlawing discrimination against gay and lesbian employees in the state executive branch and his establishment of an advisory Council for Sexual Minorities in 1976, were firsts of their kind in the US. But in the same year, the United States Supreme Court, in a summary affirmation, upheld Virginia’s right to ban sex between consenting gay men. Anita Bryant’s famous anti-gay discrimination campaign in Florida and other right-wing attacks on our community were not long to follow. In Philadelphia, several LGBTQ+ organizations were founded in 1976, including the Gay Democratic Caucus (the first gay political organization in the city), the Philadelphia Gay News, and the Gay Community Center of Philadelphia (today’s William Way LGBT Community Center). They joined a plethora of existing organizations which had formed in the early 1970s to secure equal rights for our community. Materials from 1976, including evidence of LGBT Philadelphians participating in Bicentennial or counter-Bicentennial events, are available for research in the John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives at William Way LGBT Community Center.

The William Way LGBT Community Center will act as a research and display institution for Radical Americana!

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Andalusia Historic House, Gardens, & Arboretum is a scenic 50-acre property overlooking thenDelaware River in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. Its Greek Revival mansion, built in 1797 and later expanded by architects Benjamin Latrobe and Thomas Ustick Walter, is a National Historic Landmark with a museum displaying paintings, sculpture, decorative art, and rare books and manuscripts. Thousands of visitors explore its interiors each year, discovering an unparalleled look into the nation’s past through the eyes of the influential Biddle family that lived there. 

A non-profit foundation since 1980, Andalusia also features formal and informal gardens, native woodlands, and an accredited arboretum with over 250 unique species and cultivars. Focused on creating beautiful spaces for the enjoyment of visitors, Andalusia’s aesthetic grew out of the English landscape tradition and has evolved to reflect the contributions of many residents, gardeners, and designers over the past two centuries.

The Andalusia Historic House, Gardens, & Arboretum will act as an research and exhibiting institution for Radical Americana!

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Glen Foerd is an 18-acre estate featuring a 30,000 square foot mansion, carriage house, gate house, water tower, cottage, garden house, boathouse, pond, tennis lawn, and gardens. Originally built in 1850, the house was renovated in 1893 in the Edwardian Classical Revival style. The material collection includes furniture, dishware, textiles, lighting, and glassware made by prominent Philadelphia artists and craftsmen.

In 1985, the estate was rescued from demolition. Now a public park and non-profit, Glen Foerd receives thousands of visitors who enjoy environmental programs, musical performances, our annual Artist in Residence program, myriad youth programs, and the scenic views of the Delaware River. Visit our website to learn more.

Glen Foerd is proud to be a research and exhibiting institution for Radical Americana!

The Wharton Esherick Museum is the home and studio of famed American artist Wharton Esherick, located atop Valley Forge Mountain in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Set on 12 wooded acres, the Museum campus is comprised of multiple buildings including Wharton Esherick’s Studio, which is now the centerpiece of the Museum. Esherick’s highly individual, hand-built Studio was constructed over a 40-year period beginning in 1926, incorporating Arts and Crafts, Expressionist, and organic designs. Two years later Esherick began his 1928 Expressionist garage, now our Visitor Center. In 1973, just one year after its official opening as a museum, the Studio was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 1993, the Museum was designated a National Historic Landmark for Architecture.

It is our vision for every person to experience Wharton Esherick’s dynamic creativity. Our ambitious campus plan is a blueprint for developing the opportunities inherent in our campus: education, accessibility, outreach, and collaborations among colleagues and artists, all of which support our institutional viability and growth.

The Wharton Esherick Museum will act as an research and exhibiting institution for Radical Americana - looking for an artist to create an artpiece for their outdoor property!

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The Dina Wind Art Foundation empowers living artists, builds community, and supports arts education. We are inspired by the legacy of Dina Wind (1938-2014), a trailblazing artist and arts advocate whose bold, abstract sculptures challenged stereotypes and embraced sustainability.

Using the power of art, we help make the world a better place by celebrating differences, offering exposure to innovation and supporting relevant, inspiring initiatives.  Our roots are working with innovative artists, sculptors and institutions in the Philadelphia region. Simultaneously we seek to develop new audiences and partnerships, offering hope and opportunity while building a community of independent minded creators.

We empower differences and transform lives.

The Dina Wind Art Foundation will act as an research and exhibiting institution for Radical Americana - featuring an artists work virtually on their site!

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Inspiration for today’s creativity can be found in objects from the past!

Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library is an historic mansion featuring one of the most significant collections of American decorative arts in the world. These objects and our library collections help us broadly understand the artistic, cultural, social, and intellectual history of the Americas and everyday Americans in a global context from the 17th to 20th centuries. As part of the Radical Americana initiative, Winterthur offers an experience to inform or inspire your own creative process, provide respite and opportunity to observe the natural world, and encourage historical research that enhances contemporary meaning of current work.

This is a four-day, three-night Creative Residency that:

- Includes specialized tours of the 175-room former home and museum created by Henry Francis du Pont;
- Opportunity to study select collection objects;
- Support of Winterthur Library and research staff, and connection with conservation, curatorial, and interpretation staff and graduate students;
- Access to Winterthur Library's vast rare book, manuscript, and circulating collections;
- Use of an inviting and comfortable office space for visiting researchers in our creative and intellectual community;
- Accommodation in the Visiting Scholars Residence and immersion in the 1,000 acre naturalistic garden, access to walking trails and historic architecture, and inclusion in public programming during your stay;
- Use of private multipurpose space for creating, writing, or meeting.

The Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library will act as an research institution for Radical Americana!

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The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, founded in 1824, is one of the nation’s largest archives of historical documents. We are proud to serve as Philadelphia’s Library of American History, with over 21 million manuscripts, books, and graphic images encompassing centuries of US history. HSP serves more than 4,000 on-site researchers annually and millions more around the globe who use its online resources. HSP is also a leading center for the documentation and study of ethnic communities and immigrant experiences in the 20th century, and one of the largest family history libraries in the country. Through educator workshops, research opportunities, public programs and lectures throughout the year, we strive to make history relevant and exhilarating to all.

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania will act as a research institution for Radical Americana!

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Stenton is one of the earliest, best-preserved, and most authentic historic houses in Philadelphia. It was completed in 1730 as a country-seat planation house for James Logan, a Quaker merchant, politician, justice, scientist, scholar, and secretary to William Penn. Stenton was home to six generations of Logans and a diverse community of enslaved, indentured, and free laborers, including Dinah, who lived and labored at Stenton for over 50 years. Furnished with 18th- and 19th-century Logan family objects, and remaining in little-altered condition, a visit to Stenton offers an unparalleled experience of early Pennsylvania.

Stenton will act as a research institution for Radical Americana!

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InLiquid was founded in 1999 by artist Rachel Zimmerman as an online career resource for Philadelphia’s visual artists. We’ve since expanded to serve an artist member base for whom the organization provides opportunities and promotion. InLiquid curates and installs exhibitions for alternative art spaces at participating corporate and residence locations around Philadelphia. In 2018, the organization opened its flagship InLiquid Gallery inside the Crane Arts Building in South Kensington, where it installs rotating exhibitions and hosts public events. InLiquid received its 501(c)(3) certification in 2002.‍

InLiquid aims to affirm distinction as a premier destination for contemporary visual arts programming while maintaining its commitments to social cohesion.

InLiquid will act as a exhibiting partner for Radical Americana!

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Founded in 2015, the Colored Girls Museum is housed in a 140-year-old three-story Victorian Twin home in the historic Germantown area of Philadelphia. We are the first cultural institution to center and champion the “ordinary” colored girl of African descent, citizens whose ingenuity and labor generate untold wealth yet whose stories are often hidden from view. TCGM distinguishes itself by exclusively collecting, preserving, honoring, and decoding artifacts pertaining to the experience and herstory of Colored Girls. This museum is equal parts research facility, exhibition space, gathering place, and think tank. The Colored Girls Museum has an irreplaceable quality that is both symbolic and grounded in reality.

Our programs and special projects During its years of serving the Philadelphia community and beyond, TCGM has become an anchor institution, turning the concept of radical placekeeping on its head by redefining what a museum can do. It has also been a source of inspiration and support for numerous Black and Black femme-led projects and initiatives.

The Colored Girls Museum will act as a exhibiting partner for Radical Americana!

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With more than a century of conservation history, Audubon's mission is to protect birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow.

The John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove is situated on a historic 18th-century site, the farm where John James Audubon lived when he first came to America from France in 1803. It was here that he developed a technique for drawing birds "from life" that would allow him to become one of the world's best-known wildlife artist. The hundreds of life-size portraits of birds contained in his seminal work The Birds of America helped inspire the formation of the National Audubon Society.

The property includes the original three-story farmhouse, built in 1762, miles of nature trails along the Perkiomen Creek, and a brand new building, featuring indoor and outdoor exhibits focused on birds, art, and conservation.

The John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove will act as a exhibiting partner for Radical Americana!

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Built as a country house for attorney Benjamin Chew, Cliveden was completed in 1767 and was home to seven generations of the Chew family. Cliveden has long been famous as the site of the American Revolutionary War Battle of Germantown in 1777, as well as for its Georgian architecture. New research is unearthing a more complicated history at Cliveden, which involves layers of significance, including the lives of those who were enslaved by and in service to the Chew family. This information broadens the meaning of Cliveden as a preserved historic place, exploring themes and stories of American identity and freedom. Traces of the history of the Cliveden property and its occupants can be found throughout the five-and-a-half-acre woody landscape.

Cliveden invites and gathers the community, educates students, teachers and public visitors and in a safe space, convenes vital conversations about history, race, culture, class, gender, civics and current events. We preserve this special place for community use and for future generations.

Clivden will be an exhibiting institution for Radical Americana, displaying works by Kristen Neville Taylor, Samara Weaver, and Jacintha Kruc!

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The Museum for Art in Wood engages, educates, and inspires the public through the exhibition, collection, and interpretation of contemporary art in wood.

The Museum of Art in Wood wll act an an exhibiting institution, dispalying the work of BA Harrington!

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See "BA Harrington: Suite Américaine" at the Museum for Art in Wood on February 2026 – May 2026!

Artist BA Harrington’s work reclaims the iconic furniture forms from the realm, or “place” of male production. The sculptural work in Suite Américaine references three iconic early American furniture forms: a dowry chest, a lady’s writing desk, and a lady’s worktable. The exhibition presents the American mindset as a psychological “place” in which ideas around gender and identity were historically constructed and are currently navigated and confronted. Through a revisionist lens, Harrington interprets the original forms as proto-feminist furniture in their capacity to facilitate feminine agency and uses them to reflect on shifting ideologies around gender and identity.