Blog / 2026 / 52 Weeks of Firsts in Philadelphia

It’s 2026 and that means that the US is officially in party mode, celebrating the 250^th anniversary of our nation. Of course, unofficially, much of the country views 2026 as a redux of 1776, which was the last time we, the people, told the tool who styled himself as our leader where to put his garishly gold-encrusted concept of himself as a ruler anointed by god.

This time around, the tool isn’t king quite yet and the phrase “we, the people” includes a whole lot more of us, but the stakes are the same. Do we let those with generational wealth and an overinflated sense of their own worth have all the power? Or do we fight for our right to determine who we are, both as individuals and as a nation?

Art is an important way of pushing back against authoritarians, and Philadelphia’s 52 Weeks of Firsts is a prime example. This public art exhibition was put together by Mural Arts Philadelphia, the National Constitution Center, and Historic Philadelphia. Officially, it’s an apolitical “huzzah” for Philly, but the true meaning couldn’t be more clear.

52 Weeks of Firsts features the work of 25 artists. We each painted something that the US’s first capital was first in, including everything from the first cheesesteak to the first protest against slavery in America, and we painted these innovations on person-sized #1-shaped sculptures that will be on display throughout the city this year. To my mind, it doesn’t get much more “no kings” than a commemoration of all the ways non-kings shaped our nation.

Come celebrate art and Philadelphia on any given Saturday this year as 52 Weeks of Firsts has “firstivals” planned around each artwork!

First Continental Congress will be featured at the firstival on September 12^th and it’s on display at Carpenters’ Hall throughout 2026.

In this piece, Patrick Henry—also known as the “give me liberty or give me death!” guy—is speaking with John Adams and John Morton. Adams would later become our second president, and Morton was the representative from Pennsylvania who would go on to provide the swing vote allowing the state to support the Declaration of Independence. Morton was also of Finnish descent, which was unusual among the founding fathers, many of whom were recent immigrants or the sons of immigrants, but with origins mostly in Great Britain.

The back of the sculpture shows a map of the thirteen colonies along with a reworking of Ben Franklin’s “Join, or Die” snake that was published in The Pennsylvania Journal after the First Continental Congress met in 1774. The final figure is Charles Thomson, a Philadelphian who was secretary of the Continental Congress as well as being a defender of the rights of indigenous people and one of the designers of the Great Seal of the United States.

First Steamboat for Passengers and Freight will be featured at the firstival on May 30^th and it’s on display at the Independence Seaport Museum throughout 2026.

This “first” focuses on John Fitch’s 1790 steamboat, since that was the vessel that carried both passengers and freight between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey. On the side of the sculpture, the steamboat is on the river, with other ships of the day in the background and a duckling in the foreground, emphasizing the unusual duck-paddling design of Fitch’s 1790 steamboat. On the back of the sculpture, Fitch is thinking about his engine, and, on the final side, there’s a river view of the magnificent Delaware.

First Zoo will be featured at the firstival on August 8^th and it’s on display at the Philadelphia Zoo throughout 2026.

These animals all represent firsts, making this a “first” sculpture that’s layered in meaning! The Philadelphia Zoo had the first successful birth of cheetahs in a zoo in 1956, the first successful birth of a giant river otter in North America in 2004, the first successful birth of an orangutan in a US zoo in 1928, and the first recorded parent-reared sihek in 1985 as part of the captive breeding program that the zoo undertook to help save this species. Mommy the Western Santa Cruz Galápagos tortoise is represented because she became a mother for the first time in 2025 at 97 years old.

I’ll be posting about the making of these artworks more this year, so please sign up for my weekly mailing list or my monthly newsletter to get regular updates!