Image: The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
The Phillips Collection will open 'Tomorrow the Sun Will Rise' on August 1, presenting an exhibition drawn from an open call for work created since November 2024. The museum says the project continues founder Duncan Phillips’s commitment to championing living artists while highlighting the breadth and vitality of artistic practice across the greater Washington-Baltimore area.
In the institution’s announcement, Jonathan P. Binstock, Vradenburg Director and CEO of The Phillips Collection, described artists as “among our most essential witnesses,” calling the exhibition a testament to their “courage and conviction.” The show brings together artists of different cultural backgrounds, national origins, artistic training, and generations, with practices that reflect both “the challenges of contemporary life” and the resilience that sustains creative expression.
The Phillips Collection’s framing places the exhibition within the museum’s long-running emphasis on living artists and on the region’s artistic community. Rather than centering a single artist or school, 'Tomorrow the Sun Will Rise' is organized as a broad survey of recent work selected through an open call, a format that suggests a wide range of media, approaches, and perspectives within the submitted material. The source material does not identify individual participants or works.
The exhibition will also be accompanied by public programming, including 'Live Soundscapes' and 'The Phillips Plays,' along with additional events to be announced by the museum. The announcement presents the exhibition and its related programs as part of a larger seasonal calendar at the Phillips, which is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm.
The timing of the opening also places the show within a busy stretch for the museum’s public schedule. The Phillips noted that on August 1 and 2, Bank of America cardholders will receive free admission during public hours with a Bank of America, Merrill, or Bank of America Private Bank card and photo ID. The exhibition’s opening date is set for August 1, 2026, at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.
The museum’s announcement offers few details beyond the exhibition’s open-call origin and regional scope, but it makes clear that 'Tomorrow the Sun Will Rise' is intended to foreground current artistic practice in the Washington-Baltimore area at a time marked by both difficulty and persistence. The exhibition opens August 1, 2026.
