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Barnes Foundation We offer fresh new ways to through a renowned collection, exhibitions + programs.
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The Barnes was founded in 1922 by Philadelphia art collector Dr. Albert C. Barnes, with the belief that learning with and through art is a powerful agent for personal growth and social progress. In the Barnes collection, artists such as Renoir and Picasso share space with remarkable African masks and Native American jewelry in ensembles that invite the viewer to draw their own connections across artistic traditions and time for a singularly immersive experience. Since relocating to Center City in 2012, the Barnes has continued this visionary legacy. From thought-provoking exhibitions that champion artists across diasporas, identities, periods, and disciplines, to robust social and educational programs that bring together communities and learners of all ages, the Barnes sparks exploration of our world through art.

How does an artist create work not just for a community, but in conversation with it?On November 11, "On Practice: Pew F...
10/12/2026

How does an artist create work not just for a community, but in conversation with it?

On November 11, "On Practice: Pew Fellows in Conversation" brings three 2025 Pew Fellows in the Arts together to explore community-engaged creative practice and the ways artists can contextualize and respond to public spaces. Director and performance artist Rose Jarboe, multidisciplinary artist José Ortiz-Pagán, and visual artist George Rodriguez will share perspectives from practices spanning theater, performance, sculpture, ceramics, painting, and more.

Zach Blackwood of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage moderates this intimate conversation about artistic process, community, place, and sustaining a creative life.

"On Practice" is presented by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage in partnership with the Barnes.

On Practice: Pew Fellows in Conversation
📆 Wednesday, November 11
🕕 6–7:15pm
📍the Barnes
🎟 Free; registration required
🔗 Learn more and register ➡️ https://bit.ly/3TIvkZa

Images:
Pew Fellow José Ortiz-Pagán, El Vínculo (ceremonial suit), 2020, Solitary Procession, South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Photo by Gustavo García.
Rose Jarboe, 2025 Pew Fellow. Photo by David Evan McDowell.
José Ortiz-Pagán, 2025 Pew Fellow. Photo by David Evan McDowell.
George Rodriguez, 2025 Pew Fellow. Photo by David Evan McDowell.

From Salome to film noir, the femme fatale has fascinated audiences for generations. Seductive, dangerous, and often fie...
10/11/2026

From Salome to film noir, the femme fatale has fascinated audiences for generations.

Seductive, dangerous, and often fiercely independent, the archetype has also reflected changing cultural anxieties surrounding gender, sexuality, morality, wealth, and power.

This November, join Martha Lucy, deputy director for research, interpretation and education at the Barnes, for a four-session online course tracing the femme fatale from late 19th-century European art through postwar Hollywood and into contemporary popular culture. Explore works by Toulouse-Lautrec, Gustave Moreau, Edvard Munch, and others alongside iconic performances by Barbara Stanwyck and Rita Hayworth, before considering how artists, filmmakers, musicians, and television creators have challenged and reinvented the archetype today.

Along the way, discussions will draw on feminist theory and visual culture to examine the male gaze, female agency, and the complicated relationship between desire, danger, and power.

The Femme Fatale in Art, Film, and Pop Culture, 1890 to Now
📆 Tuesdays, November 10–December 8 (no class November 24)
🕓 4–6pm ET
💻 Online
🎟 $220; members $198 (4 classes)
🔗 Learn more and register ➡️ https://bit.ly/3VXqWpD

🖼️ Detail of original cover of Killer Take All!, 1957, by James O. Causey. Graphic Books. Gift of Richard N. Hurley. Fleet Library, Rhode Island School of Design. Public Domain.

The art of the Baroque was designed to make an impact. Across 17th-century Italy and Spain, painters pushed drama, movem...
10/10/2026

The art of the Baroque was designed to make an impact.

Across 17th-century Italy and Spain, painters pushed drama, movement, light, and emotion to new heights while responding to a world shaped by profound cultural and social change.

This November, join Wayne Franits, Distinguished Professor of Art History at Syracuse University, for a four-session online course exploring Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi, Nicolas Poussin, and Diego Velázquez. Through close looking and historical context, you’ll examine each artist’s distinctive approach while considering how empire, gender, scientific inquiry, plague, and social upheaval shaped the art of the period.

Baroque Masters of Southern Europe: Caravaggio to Velázquez
📆 Wednesdays, November 4–December 2 (no class November 25)
🕑 2–4pm ET
💻 Online
🎟 $220; members $198 (4 classes)
🔗 Learn more and register ➡️ https://bit.ly/4AL7MDI

🖼️ Velázquez (Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez). Juan de Pareja (detail), 1650. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Purchase, Fletcher and Rogers Funds, and Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876–1967), by exchange, supplemented by gifts from friends of the museum, 1971

The Eiffel Tower may be one of the most recognizable monuments in the world, but parts of its history have largely disap...
10/09/2026

The Eiffel Tower may be one of the most recognizable monuments in the world, but parts of its history have largely disappeared from view.

On October 22, art historian Hollis Clayson explores the stories behind the Paris landmark, from its construction in 1889 and connections to the French Empire to the relationship between its elaborate illumination and surveillance.

Clayson, author of the forthcoming "Eiffel Tower Confidential: What It Meant and What It Stands For," will also examine how the tower itself has changed, including the 1937 removal of elaborate ornamentation that once transformed its appearance.

Will knowing more about its complicated history change how we see this symbol of the City of Light—or simply add to its allure?
Lecture: Eiffel Tower Confidential
📆 Thursday, October 22
🕛 12–1pm ET
📍 On-site + online
🎟 On-site $10; online $8; members and students free
🔗 Learn more and register ➡️ https://bit.ly/46WZ0oq

🖼️ The Summit of the Eiffel Tower (detail), 1889. From The Exposition in Paris of 1889, June 1, 1889. Image courtesy of Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections and University Archives, Northwestern University Libraries

Bring your group together for a day of art at the Barnes!Groups of 10 or more can explore our renowned collection of imp...
10/08/2026

Bring your group together for a day of art at the Barnes!

Groups of 10 or more can explore our renowned collection of impressionist, post-impressionist, and early modernist art through a docent-led tour or at their own pace with a self-guided visit.

Make the experience your own with options for private tours outside public hours, priority access to the collection, and group dining overlooking our garden courtyard.

There’s even more to experience this fall with "Noguchi to Asawa: Designing Postwar America," bringing together the work of six influential Japanese American artists whose contributions to sculpture, furniture, fiber art, and graphic design helped shape modern America.

Whether you’re planning an outing for friends, an organization, travel group, or community, discover the Barnes together.

👥 Group visits available for 10+ guests
🖼 Docent-led and self-guided options available
🍽 Group dining options available
🔗 Learn more and plan your group visit ➡️ https://bit.ly/4hZc3vB

More than 360 photographs. Over 200 photographers. Four decades of Philadelphia history.On October 25, join us for a fre...
10/06/2026

More than 360 photographs. Over 200 photographers. Four decades of Philadelphia history.

On October 25, join us for a free conversation celebrating the release of Hidden City Philadelphia’s "Philadelphia in Color: 1950–1990," a dynamic photographic portrait of the city from the emergence of widespread color photography through the dawn of the digital age.

Street photography, portraits, and family snapshots capture the evolution of Philadelphia’s architecture, fashion, communities, and everyday life. The book brings together images by renowned photographers and architects including Stephen Shore, Denise Scott Brown, Laurie Olin, and Harvey Finkle alongside the work of dozens of amateur photographers.

Editors Nathaniel Popkin, Alyssa Shea, Peter Woodall, and Alison Zeidman will share the story behind the project in a conversation moderated by Peter Barberie, Brodsky Curator of Photographs and Head of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Presented in partnership with Hidden City Philadelphia.

📚 Book Talk: Philadelphia in Color: 1950–1990 with Hidden City Philadelphia
📆 Sunday, October 25
🕐 1–2pm
🎟 Free; registration required
🖼 Registration includes access to the collection and "Noguchi to Asawa: Designing Postwar America"
🔗 Learn more and register ➡️ https://bit.ly/4e5bs9h

📷 Courtesy Henry Groskinsky/LIFE Picture Collection

The history of graphic design is a lot bigger, and more unruly, than you might expect. Medieval heraldry. Harlem Renaiss...
10/04/2026

The history of graphic design is a lot bigger, and more unruly, than you might expect.

Medieval heraldry. Harlem Renaissance graphics. Jamaican dancehall posters. Political propaganda. Psychedelic print culture. Cold War advertising. Early computer interfaces. Each offers a different window into how visual communication has shaped the way we understand the world around us.

This November, join designer, artist, researcher, and advertising executive Dan Shepelavy for a four-session on-site course exploring unexpected connections across eras, cultures, and media. Through close looking and discussion, you’ll consider how graphic design has influenced communication, identity, commerce, and everyday life, and how these histories continue to shape design today.

Graphic Design: An Unruly History
📆 Tuesdays, November 3–December 1 (no class November 24)
🕓 4–6pm ET
📍 On-site
🎟 $250; members $225 (4 classes)
🔗Learn more and register ➡️ https://bit.ly/4dZe20v

🖼️ Design by Dan Shepelavy

Picasso. Matisse. Stravinsky. Debussy. Chanel. Nijinsky. What brought some of the greatest creative minds of the 20th ce...
10/03/2026

Picasso. Matisse. Stravinsky. Debussy. Chanel. Nijinsky. What brought some of the greatest creative minds of the 20th century together? The Ballets Russes.

Under the direction of Russian entrepreneur Sergei Diaghilev, artists, composers, dancers, and designers came together in groundbreaking collaborations that transformed ballet into a distinctly modern art form.

This November, join acclaimed flutist Mimi Stillman for a four-session online course exploring this creative revolution through music, dance, painting, and design. Musical performances, ballet videos, paintings, costumes, and archival materials will illuminate how productions including "Firebird," "Petrouchka," and "The Rite of Spring" challenged audiences and reshaped modern culture in Europe and the United States.

The Ballets Russes: Art, Music, and Modern Performance
📆 Mondays, November 2–23
🕕 6–8pm ET
💻 Online
🎟️$220; members $198 (4 classes)
Learn more and register ➡️ https://bit.ly/4rw6x6V

🖼️ Léon Bakst. Program for Le Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un faune (detail), 1912

In 1923, Philadelphia’s art critics had a lot to say about Dr. Barnes’s collection. 👀🔥That year, Dr. Albert Barnes intro...
10/01/2026

In 1923, Philadelphia’s art critics had a lot to say about Dr. Barnes’s collection. 👀🔥

That year, Dr. Albert Barnes introduced his collection of modern European art to Philadelphia with an exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Critics hated it, igniting a very public battle between Barnes and the Philadelphia press over modern art, good taste, and who had the authority to decide what belonged in a museum.

More than a century later, many of the works that caused such outrage remain in the Barnes collection. This October, our Spotlight Tour revisits the controversy surrounding them.

See the art through the eyes of a 1923 audience, discover what critics found so objectionable, and consider how dramatically our ideas about art can change over time.

October Spotlight Tour: Firestorm! Outrage! Dr. Barnes’s Scandalous 1923 Philadelphia Exhibition
📆 Thursday–Monday
🕐 1pm ET
🎟 Weekdays: $39; weekends: $49; members free
🔗 Learn more and reserve your tour ➡️ https://bit.ly/46JBD1w

🖼️ Chaim Soutine. Woman in Blue (detail), c. 1919. The Barnes Foundation

Few artists changed the direction of modern art as profoundly as Marcel Duchamp.By challenging conventional ideas about ...
09/28/2026

Few artists changed the direction of modern art as profoundly as Marcel Duchamp.

By challenging conventional ideas about beauty, craftsmanship, and artistic authorship, Duchamp transformed ordinary objects and provocative ideas into some of the most influential works of the 20th century.

This November, join instructor Matthew Palczynski for a four-session online course exploring Duchamp’s refusal to play by the rules—from his notorious appearance at the 1913 Armory Show to the secretive "Étant donnés." Together, you’ll consider how his “anti-art” helped pave the way for conceptual art, assemblage, performance, and new ways of thinking about what an artwork could be.

With a major Duchamp retrospective opening this fall at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the course offers a timely opportunity to unpack the artist who transformed one seemingly simple question: What is art?

What Is Art? Marcel Duchamp
📆 Mondays, November 2–23
🕐 1–3pm ET
💻 Online
🎟️ $220; members $198 (4 classes)
Learn more and register ➡️ https://bit.ly/4dXgapz

🖼️ Carl Van Vechten. Marcel Duchamp, November 17, 1933. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Gift of Jacqueline, Paul, and Peter Matisse in memory of their mother, Alexina Duchamp, 1998

Address

2025 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy
Philadelphia, PA
19130

Opening Hours

Monday 11am - 5pm
Thursday 11am - 5pm
Friday 11am - 5pm
Saturday 11am - 5pm
Sunday 11am - 5pm

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+12152787000

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