No ticket. No reservation. No velvet rope.

Nine Philadelphia artists. Forty-two large-scale banners. South Broad Street transformed into an open-air gallery that belongs to everyone.

Avenue of the Arts, Inc. unveiled its Outdoor Art Banner Gallery on May 5, and it’s one of the first things most people will see of the AveArts 2.0 project, the $150 million, decade-long initiative to transform South Broad into one of the world’s great cultural boulevards.

The banners are the opening statement.

The installation stretches primarily from Lombard Street to Washington Avenue, with additional placements near Pine and Spruce Streets.

Each of the nine artists developed four original designs.

Walk the corridor and you’ll encounter textile artist Amanda Granum Milz’s reimagined American flag, multicolored, inclusive, and unmistakably Philadelphia.

Pop-surrealist Keni Thomas puts Benjamin Franklin and William Penn into playful, electric scenes built for the city’s 250th.

Marian Bailey centers community gardens and youth expression as the real cultural fabric of the city.

Sarah Haenn pulls Philadelphia’s textile heritage into surreal, contemporary form.

Fabiola Lara transforms familiar landmarks into bold, nostalgic illustrations drawn from her citywide mini print series.

Curator Julia Guerrero of Civic Centered Projects shaped the nine artists’ work into a unified visual narrative.

History, identity, neighborhood pride, and creative restlessness all running together down one street.

The project was funded in part by a City of Philadelphia Department of Commerce grant, meaning this is your city investing in its own story.

The public art steering committee that guided it includes Conrad Benner of the Streets Department, Charlotte Cohen of the Association for Public Art, and several other civic heavy-hitters.

Carl Dranoff, the developer who helped build modern South Broad Street and now chairs the AAI board, put it plainly. “These banners turn the Avenue of the Arts into a living expression of who we are, creative, independent, and constantly evolving.”

With the 250th anniversary of American independence, the FIFA World Cup, and the MLB All-Star Game all coming to Philadelphia in 2026, millions of visitors will walk this stretch.

They’ll see what this city’s creative community looks like right now.

The banners are up for approximately one year.

Go take a walk.