The Phillips Collection is giving DC-area artists their moment - and the city is paying attention
'Tomorrow the Sun Will Rise,' the museum's first juried open-call show in years, pulled 1,500 submissions from local artists and put 48 of them on the walls of one of America's most storied modern art institutions. It's on view through September 20.
In brief
The Phillips Collection is giving DC-area artists their moment - and the city is paying attention
Fifteen hundred artists sent their work to a Dupont Circle museum this spring. Forty-eight made it onto the walls.
That's the number at the center of Tomorrow the Sun Will Rise: The Phillips Collection Juried Exhibition, which opened August 1 and runs through September 20 at The Phillips Collection, 1600 21st St. NW. Drawing from those 1,500 submissions, the show brings together 48 artists from Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia whose recent work reflects, adapts, experiments, and resists in response to the contemporary moment. The range of what landed on those walls - sculpture, painting, photography, textile, video - is wide enough that a single visit barely covers it.
The open call had a specific starting date baked in. All submitted work had to have been created since November 2024. That is not a coincidence. Following the results of the 2024 election, many D.C.-area artistic institutions struggled to find ways to respond to the new administration and its impact on the region. The Phillips Collection decided to put on a show.
The show's title comes from an unlikely place. It was inspired by a Brazilian protest song, Chico Buarque's 1970 samba "Apesar de você" - "In spite of you." That context matters. The title isn't vague optimism. It's a direct nod to art made under political pressure, and the Phillips is using it to frame work produced right here, right now, in the city that happens to be at the center of that pressure.
Who made the selection
The exhibition was curated by Tie Jojima, Curator of Global Contemporary Art at The Phillips Collection, and Tsedaye Makonnen, Guest Curator. Makonnen is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist, daughter of Ethiopian immigrants, a mother, and a birthworker whose practice centers Black feminist theory, migration, and reproductive rights. Jojima, born and raised in São Paulo, completed her PhD at the Graduate Center, CUNY, with research focused on postwar and contemporary Latin American art, and has previously worked as an Associate Curator at Americas Society in New York.
The full jury also included Leila Grothe, Operations Manager at the Ruth Arts Foundation, and Jordan Martin, a cultural producer and artist consultant, who reviewed submissions for artistic merit, originality, conceptual approach, and execution.
What they landed on is not a tidy collection of protest signs. Jojima puts it plainly: "The DC region is inherently global. The artists in this exhibition reflect that reality, with work rooted in personal contexts while engaging broader global movements and ideas." The exhibition represents artists with roots in 16 countries, and the curators frame the region itself as a site of global exchange shaped by migration, political life, and cultural dialogue.
Makonnen describes the work differently: "This exhibition is about the act of making as a vital force. In a time of uncertainty, these works offer ways of processing, grounding, and imagining otherwise."
What makes this show unusual
The Phillips is America's first museum of modern art. It houses one of the world's most celebrated Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and modern art collections, and continues to grow its permanent collection with the work of important living artists. Showing here means something different than showing at a gallery on 14th Street. It means being in rooms that also hold Rothko, Bonnard, and Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party.
The show puts local artists at all career stages on the same footing as globally recognized names - a rarity at D.C.'s major artistic institutions. For more than a dozen of the artists, this is their first time having work shown in any museum.
There are financial stakes, too. Exhibiting artists have the opportunity to sell the artworks included in the show and retain all proceeds. Beyond that, the Phillips already has plans to acquire some pieces for its permanent collection, with details expected to be announced next month. Getting acquired by the Phillips is career-altering. The museum's reach extends well past Dupont Circle.
As Makonnen put it: "It's massive to be able to say that you've shown at an institution like the Phillips because of its global reach, and also its really rich collection." A local precedent: artist Marta Pérez García was featured in the Phillips' last juried invitational in 2021, and the following year the museum hosted a full solo exhibition of her work.
Prize winner and the final selection
The final selection of 56 works features artists at varying stages of their careers, including those receiving their first museum exhibition. The first prize went to Kei Ito. A People's Choice Award, determined by public vote on The Phillips Collection's website, will be announced in September. Visitors can vote online before the show closes - a small act that gives the audience a hand in how the exhibition ends.
Washington City Paper critic Stephanie Rudig framed the show with a pointed question: what have artists in the D.C. region been doing since November 2024, when the second Trump administration was elected? Tomorrow the Sun Will Rise provides some answers, and its jurors had the "tough job of sifting through submissions from 1,500 of the region's artists, winnowing the final selections to showcase an up-to-the-minute slice of what's happening in local art."
The practical details
The exhibition runs daily from August 1 through September 20, 2026. Museum hours are 10 AM to 5 PM. The Phillips Collection is at 1600 21st St. NW, two blocks from the Dupont Circle Metro. The show is accompanied by a digital publication featuring artist statements and an introduction by the co-curators. It's available on the museum's website for those who want to go deeper before or after a visit.
Fifty-six works. Six weeks left. The People's Choice vote is open now.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
