What futures become possible when Philadelphia is shaped by care rather than displacement and erasure? 

A People’s Philly is a collaborative public exhibition and programming project grounded in spatial imagination as a political practice. At its core, it invites viewers to consider how collective care might transform the city and the possibilities we envision for its future. 

Situated within a moment of national commemoration and critique, and inspired by the legacy of the 1976 Bicentennial protests and the visionary work of grassroots Philadelphia organizations, the project foregrounds how community-led movements for spatial justice, liberatory activism, and shared stewardship shape the city’s present and future. Through collective study, community workshops, and youth design education, it explores how speculative practice can serve as a form of civic engagement and world-making. 

The exhibition grew from workshops, conversations, and design sessions with youth, residents, activists, and grassroots organizers in four featured neighborhoods: North Philadelphia, Kensington, West Philadelphia, Grays Ferry, and elsewhere across the city. Their ideas and experiences shape the videos, imagery, and speculative visions presented here, while quotations, texts, and an archive of sources trace the histories, struggles, and intellectual traditions from which these possible futures emerge. 

At the center of the exhibition is the workshop table where visitors become active participants, creators, and co-curators of the exhibition. Through mapping, collaging, writing, and design activities, participants can reflect on existing conditions, imagine alternatives, and add their ideas to the evolving collective vision of A People’s Philly.  

Grounding the discussion on these visions are archival imagery and text alongside projections of a future Philadelphia generated using an AI model developed by the Human XR Lab at the Universidad del Atlántico Medio in the Canary Islands. The projections take form through four interactive characters that visitors can engage in conversation, asking questions about the future city they inhabit. 

A People’s Philly  approaches design not as a neutral or technical exercise, but as a political and ethical practice grounded in accountability and solidarity. It asserts that more just spatial futures are not produced through abstract planning or isolated authorship, but through collective struggle, care, study, and collaboration. The exhibition uses speculation to question what is, while opening space for what might be possible.  

CREDITS: Organized by the Spatial Justice Collective, a group of faculty, alumni, and students at the University of Pennsylvania, the project was developed as a collaboration with the Philly Peace Park, Breakthrough of Greater Philadelphia, DesignPhiladelphia, and the Human XR Lab at Universidad del Atlántico Medio.