Rising Sun: Artists in an Uncertain America is Collaborative Exhibition at PAFA and AAMP

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Rising Sun: Artists in an Uncertain America is one exhibition at two museums featuring 20 artists.

Anna O. Marley, Chief of Curatorial Affairs at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, says there are fantastic sculptures on display, along with multimedia films and massive paintings.

Eleven of the artists' works are on view at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) and nine at the African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP).

Morgan Lloyd, Program Coordinator and Lead Guide at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, says photography is featured along with a sculpture that dances.

Marley says all the artists were asked to answer the question - "Is the sun rising or setting on the experiment of American democracy?" This question was first posed by Benjamin Franklin at the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

Franklin's question was sparked by a design detail on George Washington's chair.

Marley says because Franklin was an optimist, "We tend to call it the rising sun chair."

"And now we have an African diasporic approach to answering this question," says Lloyd.

The exhibition was also inspired by the Black National Anthem, James Weldon Johnson's Lift Every Voice and Sing.

The lyrics include a line that says, "Facing the rising sun of our new day begun."

"We're already analyzing what it meant to be Black here in the nation," says Lloyd. "When you go over to PAFA you get to hear a myriad of other voices, from the Indigenous community to the Asian community."

"The sun is always rising or setting somewhere differently, so it really depends on your perspective," says Marley.

"It's just a conversation on what we feel America is," says Lloyd.

Marley says the hope is that the collaborative exhibition will allow visitors to be thinking beyond your own set of assumptions to see a broader view.

Rising Sun: Artists in an Uncertain America is on view at PAFA through December 31 and at AAMP through March 3, 2024.

Rising Sun: Artists in an Uncertain America | Tickets | Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts | African American Museum in Philadelphia exhibitions