2026 marks the 50th anniversary of the release of the first Rocky film. To coincide, the Philadelphia Art Museum announced on Wednesday, there will an exhibition will explores the myth surrounding the iconic statue at the foot of the museum, based on the fictional hero.
In April 2026, the “Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments” exhibition will open in the museum’s Dorrance Galleries.
The exhibition, curated by Monument Lab cofounder Paul Farber, will showcase over 150 works from more than 50 artists including, among others, Reading, Pa. native Keith Haring, Rashid Johnson, Andy Warhol, Carrie Mae Weems, and Hank Willis Thomas, the artist behind the All Power to All People sculpture that stood on Thomas Paine Plaza in 2017. They will be joined by artists from Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Restorative Justice Program.
“Rising Up” will examine the changing role of monuments in creating spaces of recreation across time, with the Rocky Statue by sculptor A. Thomas Schomberg at the heart of the exhibition.
Farber hopes the display will broaden conversations about identity, power, memory, and community. Themes that are central to public art and Philadelphia’s cultural history.
“We have a statue that four million people visit a year. That’s extraordinary. It’s a statue of the most famous Philadelphian that never lived, in a city full of boxers who were legendary champs. How do we reconcile both of those thoughts? Well, we have to dive into it and understand it,” Farber said.
The Rocky Statue and Philadelphia Art Museum steps are visited by about 4 million people every year, the Philadelphia Visitor Center reported last year. That visitor count for the art museum averages at about 800,000 yearly visitors, per the museum.
Researched for over five years and in development for two, “Rising Up” will include sculptures, paintings, video performances, film, photographs, prints, drawings, participatory experiences, new commissions, and other works.
“This show is a testament to the vitality and passion of Philadelphia’s arts, culture, and sports communities,” Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said in a statement. “It is more than timely as we approach our monumental Semiquincentennial year.”
A publication accompanying the exhibit will edited by Farber, with essays by Philadelphia artist Alex Da Corte, former Inquirer film critic Carrie Rickey, and newly-enshrined Philadelphia Eagles Hall of Famer Malcolm Jenkins.
“Rising Up” is scheduled to open on April 25, 2026, and will be on view through Aug. 2, 2026.
Coincidentally enough, the art museum announcement comes at a not-so-celebratory moment for fans of RockyFest, the annual celebration of the city’s most famous boxer instituted by the Philadelphia Visitor Center last year. But it’s not all that bad.
A year after the the festival’s first run, its organizers have cancelled 2025’s festival and chosen to pivot to a yearlong celebration in 2026, rather than a week of bus tours and fan experiences.
“Throughout 2026, we will highlight a series of major milestones and activations commemorating this iconic moment in Philadelphia and film history,” Kathryn Ott Lovell, president & CEO of the Visitor Center, said in a statement.
Lovell said next year’s “Rocky 50″ will include events that are currently in development. Some of that which will accompany complement the release of Sylvester Stallone’s upcoming memoir, The Steps, in May.
A full 2026 calendar of events will be released at a later date, Lovell said.