The Peabody Essex Museum announced an exciting lineup of new exhibitions and programming for 2026, ranging from a museum-wide celebration of the 400th anniversary of Salem’s founding to a retrospective of acclaimed 19th-century Black, Indigenous sculptor Edmonia Lewis that examines her connections to Boston and Salem.
PEM will host a range of activities throughout 2026 that celebrate our storied city. Salem 400+ commemorates the city’s quadricentennial, while acknowledging the preexisting Indigenous community, and aims to engage the Salem community and ensure a vibrant and sustainable city for generations to come. Visitors will discover hundreds of objects in East India Marine Hall, celebrating the early days of the museum, new local art-making programs, curator presentations, guided learning opportunities, and in-school workshops that explore identity and community-building.
“The year ahead at PEM invites visitors to immerse themselves in art and culture through exhibitions and programs that spark curiosity, creativity, and discovery,” said Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, PEM’s Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Executive Director and CEO. “From globally significant artists such as Edmonia Lewis and Isamu Noguchi to presentations that explore PEM’s origin story, Salem’s role in shaping our democracy and powerful community stories told through the lens of filmmakers, we are proud to present an ambitious slate of exhibitions. We also look forward to welcoming audiences for a dynamic new array of programs that offer the opportunity to take part in singular, creative experiences at PEM.”
Extended Run
“Andrew Gn: Fashioning the World” is on view through April 5.
Making its North American debut, “Andrew Gn: Fashioning the World” has been extended through Sunday, April 5. The exhibition showcases nearly 100 stunning works, including clothing, accessories, original illustrations, and digital media. Experience the life and legacy and the expensive art and design philosophy of this Singaporean fashion designer for a little longer.
Upcoming Exhibitions
“Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone” is on view from Feb. 14 through June 7.
PEM debuts the first major retrospective exhibition of acclaimed 19th-century Black, Indigenous sculptor Edmonia Lewis. Transcending national, racial, and gender barriers, Lewis became the first sculptor of Black and Indigenous (Mississauga) descent to achieve international recognition. Beginning her career in Boston in 1863 and later joining the leading American sculptors of her generation in Rome, she created vivid, naturalistic stone sculptures featuring abolitionists and social reformers. The pieces engaged with Indigenous identity and gave new life to religious and mythological figures. Following her death in 1907, Lewis’s legacy endured in Black communities, yet her contribution to American sculpture has largely been underrecognized.
Some of her great masterpieces were rediscovered decades later, while others remain lost today. Co-organized by the Peabody Essex Museum and the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia, this is the first museum exhibition to gather the full range of Lewis’s art alongside works by her contemporaries and the generations of artists she influenced. Thirty sculptures by Lewis from public and private collections across the United States and abroad will be brought together with a number of additional objects in a range of media, giving visitors an opportunity to learn of Lewis’s master of marble and her remarkable, storied life.
“East India Marine Hall” opens March 14.
As we mark the 200th anniversary of PEM’s East India Marine Hall, a new exhibition of the museum’s earliest collected objects allows us to reflect upon the global perspective that has made Salem such a distinctive city.
From its inception, East India Marine Hall and the objects in it have elicited empathy, curiosity, and wonder, and transported visitors to places around the world. Explore a fascinating sampling of the many collections that were displayed in the museum, with many objects dating back to 1799. This installation gives voices to early collectors, trading partners, and museum visitors about these objects — some extracted from records in the museum’s vast archive — along with perspectives shared by a range of people living today. These captivating stories and works that reflect local and global history, as well as the impact of maritime trade, recenter East India Marine Hall as the heart of the museum.
“Beyond the Broom: Salem Short Films” on view March 28 through August 2027.
Discover more than 60 mini-documentaries by local filmmakers, offering the lesser-known stories of Salem and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes the city so remarkable. Produced over the course of more than seven years by Perry Hallinan, Joe Cultera, and many other filmmakers for presentation at the Salem Film Festival, these short films span topics from breakfast at Red’s to the annual Black Picnic at Salem Willows.
For longtime Salem residents, these stories might spark nostalgia; for new residents and tourists, they illuminate Salem’s vibrant communities, bygone businesses, and traditions that local filmmakers have long worked to record and preserve.
“Pressing Importance: Salem and The Declaration of Independence” on view May 2 through July 25, 2027.
As part of the Salem 400+ celebration, view rare and iconic American documents that were instrumental to the founding of the United States. Salem’s connections to the Declaration of Independence center around Ezekiel Russell, a local printer who played a key role in publishing and disseminating the Declaration in 1776. This exhibition coincides with the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution as well as the 400th anniversary of the European settlement of Salem. Works on view in the intimate James Duncan Phillips Trust Gallery include two of the earliest broadside editions of the Declaration of Independence alongside Revolutionary-era manuscripts, newspapers, pamphlets, and broadsides that showcase the nation’s founding values of democracy: freedom, liberty, and equality.
Fashion & Design Gallery Rotation opens Aug. 1.
Entering its seventh year, PEM’s Fashion & Design gallery continues to explore the human impulse to create — for ourselves, our society, and our environment. This major rotation of clothing, textiles, industrial, and decorative design objects will focus on Salem and Essex County history in honor of Salem 400+. See local Revolutionary War-era uniforms, a piece by Alexander McQueen related to the Salem Witch Trials and shoes from the North Shore’s long history of shoemaking.
“Isamu Noguchi: ‘I am not a designer’” is on view Sept. 19 through Jan. 3, 2027.
Explore a major retrospective that offers a new perspective on the design work of Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988), one of the 20th century’s most influential and critically acclaimed genre-blurring artists. His remarkable artistic legacy encompasses sculpture, lighting, theatrical set designs, furniture, ceramics, and designs for public spaces such as playgrounds. Many of his designs remain incredibly popular, such as the celebrated coffee table and Akari light sculptures that you may recognize in stores today. Organized by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, “Isamu Noguchi: ‘I am not a designer’ shines a light on the artist’s limitless creativity and social consciousness.
“Origami Inspirations” opens Dec. 5.
Explore the origins and process of the art of paper folding. In the nearly two decades since pEM featured the crowd-pleasing exhibition “Origami Now!,” contemporary origami has continued to expand into exciting new modes of expression and invention. This multigenerational exhibition in the Dotty Brown Art & Nature Center highlights origami as not only an exciting art form, but also an important influence on new innovations in science, engineering, and math. See works from leading origami artists, including Michael G. LaFosse, one of the world’s top origami masters and a Massachusetts resident. In addition to showcasing masterworks of origami, PEM will highlight the cutting edge of contemporary origami and design, ranging from complex artistic models and folding nano structures to pop-up emergency shelters. Investigate origami-inspired breakthroughs in robotics, medicine, and sustainability. Interactive displays and video tutorials will give visitors of all ages hands-on opportunities to investigate and participate in the artistic process of origami.
