Guerrilla tours reveal climate history through Philadelphia museum collections

Artist and curator Aislinn Pentecost-Farren leads free tours at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Independence Seaport Museum, and Science History Institute as part of ArtPhilly 2026, the inaugural citywide festival running until July 2 that reflects on the US's 250th anniversary. Using works like Thomas Doughty's 1826 painting of Fairmount Water Works, she reveals how the Schuylkill River's transformation enabled coal transport, connecting industrial expansion to displacement, pollution, and inequality. Pentecost-Farren began the project in 2023 as an unsanctioned self-guided brochure styled after the museum's official map, distributing hundreds of copies. In 2024, the PMA invited her to stage a live version for Earth Day. Each tour focuses on different themes: the PMA on race, class, Indigenous dispossession, and colonialism; the Science History Institute on petrochemical companies' role in creating fossil fuel demand; and the Independence Seaport Museum on energy transitions. Pentecost-Farren aims to demystify energy transitions and show that history can offer freedom to imagine new futures. The tours run until June 28.