For the People, By the People: America at 250
June 27, 2026 - October 4, 2026
For the People, By the People: America at 250 looks to the nation’s impending semiquincentennial as an opportunity to reflect on America’s enduring ties to liberty, justice, and identity. Drawing inspiration from the democratic ideals articulated in the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” this exhibition considers how the promise of freedom has been expressed, questioned, and reevaluated across generations. Using four core themes: pursuit of liberty and fight for visibility; patriotism, war, US iconography, and disillusionment; American labor and ambition; and reckoning with U.S. history and envisioning its future, For the People, By the People brings together artworks from the KIA’s collection and loans of bold contemporary voices to examine the symbols, struggles, and aspirations that shaped and continue to inform American life.
Spanning photography, printmaking, painting, sculpture, and installation-based works, this exhibition juxtaposes notable artists such as Dorothea Lange, Jacob Lawrence, Alfred Stieglitz, Hank Willis Thomas, and Andy Warhol with rising artists like Erica Lord, Julio Cesar Morales, and Cara Romero, among many others. From iconic images of migration, progress, and protest to poignant, yet declarative text works to portraits that center Indigenous, African American, and diasporic experiences, the artists featured in For the People, By the People form and challenge the rhetoric and visual language of patriotism, social consciousness, labor, representation, and belonging.
Simultaneously celebratory and contemplative, this exhibition invites visitors to reflect on the United States of America’s founding principles and our current lived realities. By placing historic works in dialogue with contemporary practices, For the People, By the People: America at 250 not only commemorates the nation’s 250th anniversary but also serves as a timely meditation on who “the people” were then—and who we aspire to be now.
Made possible by generous support from:
