The Woodmere Annual: 83rd Juried Exhibition

About the Exhibition

The Woodmere Annual exhibition presents the work of Philadelphia’s contemporary artists. Each year, a different juror prepares a call for artists, soliciting submissions related to a distinct theme or idea. This year’s juror, Ron Tarver, invites makers to submit works that reflect on the theme of Family.

Family can be an inheritance, a chosen community, a structure of care, a site of rupture, or even a collection of salient objects. Definitions of family may be intimate or expansive, encompassing close personal bonds and broader conceptions of collective family across time and place.

For Woodmere's 83rd Annual Juried Exhibition, presented in dialogue with the exhibition Arc of Promise, celebrating the USA's 250th anniversary, the juror invites artists to submit works that engage the theme of family. How do families shape individual and collective identities, including national ones? How can ideas of kinship, responsibility, and belonging contribute to nation-building?

Please join us for an opening reception on Saturday, June 27th, from 2-4 PM, free with registration.

About the Juror

Ron Tarver has spent nearly 50 years creating photo essays on subjects from double-Dutch jump rope to the 1980s crack epidemic, Black architecture, veterans, and cowboys. His recent work appropriates his father's midcentury photographs to address today's racial climate.

Tarver holds a BA from Northeastern State University and an MFA from the University of the Arts. His honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, Pew Fellowship, two Independence Foundation Fellowships, and NEA funding. As a Philadelphia Inquirer staff photojournalist for 32 years, Tarver shared the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for documenting school violence and received three additional Pulitzer nominations, plus awards from World Press Photos, Society of Professional Journalists, and National Press Photographers Association.

His work has appeared in National Geographic, Life, Time, and other major publications. He co-authored We Were There: Voices of African American Veterans (Harper Collins, 2004) and The Long Ride Home: Black Cowboys in America, which debuted as Amazon's number one release in 2024, and received seven awards from independent publishing organizations.

Tarver’s photographs have been exhibited widely, with more than 30 solo and 50 group exhibitions nationally and internationally, and are held in major collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. He currently serves as Associate Professor and Chair of Art at Swarthmore College and is represented by the Robin Rice Gallery.

‍Exhibition dates

The Woodmere Annual: 83rd Juried Exhibition will be on view June 27–September 6, 2026.  

Prizes

Ten prizes totaling over $2,000 will be awarded by the juror.

ALL inquiries must be made via email to annual@woodmereartmuseum.org.