Event Details
"Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth."
Thomas Paine, "Common Sense", 1776
Join us on May 14 from 6:00–8:00 PM for a special screening of Episode 3: Independence (1763–1790)--a pivotal chapter in In Pursuit: Philadelphia and the Making of America.
This episode explores the political unrest, public resistance, and bold leadership that propelled Philadelphia to the center of the American Revolution, culminating in the Declaration of Independence and the founding of a new nation.
This event is uniquely paired with PAFA’s landmark exhibition, A Nation of Artists, a sweeping, multi-year showcase presented in honor of America’s 250th anniversary. Featuring over 1,000 works spanning three centuries of American art—including rarely seen pieces from the Middleton Family Collection—the exhibition explores how creativity has been shaped by expansion, conflict, innovation, and cultural exchange.
Following the screening, guests will enjoy curated tours through PAFA’s historic galleries, offering a deeper visual context to the era of independence and the evolving American identity.
About In Pursuit
In Pursuit: Philadelphia and the Making of America is the first multi-part documentary series to explore the history of American democratic life through the experience of one city. No documentary project has included such a sweep of voices in chronicling a single American place. No place can tell the American story like Philadelphia.
Featuring more than 200 scholars, journalists, artists, activists, and everyday people, including Grammy nominee Ursula Rucker, Lincoln Prize winner Allen Guelzo, Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough, renowned sociologist Marcus Anthony Hunter, Lenape/Delaware educator Jeremy Johnson, groundbreaking historian Sophia Rosenfeld, and legendary journalist Andrea Mitchell.
In Pursuit dramatizes the perilous situation of a border city amidst the Civil War, the aspiration of Reconstruction, the hope and disappointments of the Great Migration, and the transformative power of railroads and robber barons in one of America’s leading industrial cities. The series follows Philadelphia’s ambitious urban planners into the twentieth century, chronicling the vision and reality of Urban Renewal, the challenges and consequences of deindustrialization, the struggles for civil rights, gay and lesbian rights, and women’s rights in a city striving to define its own future.