Garrett Bradley, Arthur Jafa Set For Barnes Foundation Exhibition 

This month, the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia will debut Freedom Dreams, an expansive exhibition focused on Black American history and identity, explored through film works by five artists. 

The exhibition will feature films by Arthur Jafa, David Hartt, Garrett Bradley, Ja’Tovia Gary, and Tourmaline. The show has been co-curated by James Claiborne, Fleischner Family Vice President for Engagement at the Barnes, and Maori Karmael Holmes, Chief Executive and Artistic Officer of BlackStar Projects. 

The films set to screen are Arthur Jafa’s now-seminal Love is the Message, The Message is Death (2016); David Hartt’s On Exactitude in Science (Watts) (2021); America (2019) by Garrett Bradley; Ja’Tovia Gary’s Quiet As It’s Kept (2023); and Pollinator (2022) by Tourmaline. 

Freedom Dreams will be the first time all five works have screened at a museum in Philadelphia. 

“One of our goals with Freedom Dreams is to reveal connections among different generations of Black artists in America across varying disciplines who have found commonality in moving image assemblage and in creating an archive where none previously existed,” Claiborne and Holmes said in a statement. 

“Through the exhibition, we will draw out points of connection between the artists’ histories and their work, and invite audiences to reflect on a larger question: what does liberation and freedom look like for Black Americans 250 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence?”

Freedom Dreams is on view in the Roberts Gallery at the Barnes from April 12 to August 9, 2026. The show is sponsored by Comcast NBCUniversal.