Running March 9 through 20 at InLiquid’s expansive Icebox Project Space inside the Crane Arts Building, March for Art 2026 invites collectors and art lovers to view and purchase more than 200 works while supporting Philadelphia’s working artists through an artist-first fundraising model. March for Art 2026 is both a marketplace and a cultural snapshot—an opportunity to see what the region’s artists are making right now, and to understand how a city sustains its creative engine.
InLiquid Executive Director and Founder Rachel Zimmerman captures the scale and intent of the event: “March for Art is Philadelphia’s largest art sale featuring Philadelphia-based artists and designers.” She adds, “With the art on display for two weeks and a full calendar of special events, it’s a truly unique opportunity to see, support, and purchase artwork by our city’s foremost artists.”
This year’s auction includes work by notable artists such as painter and photographer Diane Burko, photo-based multidisciplinary artist Gabe Martinez, and interdisciplinary artist, photographer, and educator Peggy Washburn. Their presence signals the caliber of the sale while also underscoring the breadth of practices InLiquid tends to champion—artists who approach image-making as both craft and inquiry, and who participate in the evolving identity of the region’s visual language.
March for Art 2026 expands into craft, design, and material culture
While the auction runs, InLiquid Gallery extends the experience beyond the Icebox with the March for Art Shop, open through March 28, featuring art jewelry, clothing, furniture, and homewares by local craftspeople. In the context of a contemporary art fundraiser, this matters: it frames collecting as something that can be lived with in multiple registers, from wall-based work to objects that travel with you, sit on your table, or reshape a room through texture and form.
The Shop includes a curated selection of contemporary jewelry by Philadelphia-based and regional artists including Mia Kaplan, whose sculptural jewelry is inspired by childhood nostalgia, memory, and identity; Sarah Montagnoli, known for pillowed metal forms that encapsulate fragments of personal history; Maddy Hirsch, whose practice sits at the intersection of art, ecology, and sustainable, community-driven design; and Caroline Gore, whose work is rooted in traditional analog processes and primarily made with sterling silver, semi-precious minerals and stones, and other material investigations.
For collectors who track the current convergence of fine art and design, the Shop is also where you can feel the cultural temperature shift—how contemporary makers are thinking about adornment, sustainability, memory, and the emotional life of objects. March for Art 2026 positions these practices as essential, not peripheral, to the contemporary landscape.
March for Art 2026 builds its momentum through events and access
InLiquid’s programming turns March for Art 2026 into a two-week calendar, not a single-night fundraiser. The event includes both free and ticketed experiences that invite different kinds of engagement—preview access for serious buyers, open-door evenings for the public, and design-focused programming that foregrounds craft.
The schedule begins with March for Art: PEEK on Monday, March 9, 6–9 p.m., an exclusive preview party for participating artists, sponsors, and VIP ticket holders—an early entry point that often sets the tone for the auction’s collecting energy. The following week brings March for Art: UNITE/Second Thursday on March 12, 6–9 p.m., when the Crane Arts Building opens its doors to the public for free. InLiquid joins the wider N. American Street Arts Corridor in a night that functions as a public-facing affirmation of the neighborhood’s role as a vital contemporary arts district.
On Saturday, March 14, 12–4 p.m., March for Art: DESIGN spotlights a designer trunk show and a Member Mixer, with vendors including Care Packages Bakes, John Wind Jewelry, Rudy Lewis Jewelry, Roberta Gruber Designs, Nino Brand, Paz Sandoval, and Prajje. The programming closes with March for Art: BASH on Friday, March 20, 6:30–10 p.m., a final-night event positioned as the season’s signature fête—art, food, drinks, and surprises as bidding winds down.
Taken together, that’s the core proposition of March for Art 2026: contemporary art presented with access, momentum, and an economic model that keeps working artists at the center.
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