The Philadelphia Museum of Art is opening a new exhibition titled "Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments" on Saturday, exploring the legacy of the Rocky statue. The exhibit features over 150 works across eight galleries, including pieces by Keith Haring and Andy Warhol, with the bronze Rocky statue from the 1982 film "Rocky III" as its centerpiece. For the first time, visitors must pay to see the original statue, which was previously located at the bottom of the museum's steps. The exhibition also includes works highlighting boxing greats Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali, and Joe Louis, and was inspired by a 2023 WHYY podcast.
The exhibit matters because it settles a long-standing debate about whether the Rocky statue—a movie prop turned beloved Philadelphia symbol—qualifies as a work of art. Museum officials, who once had a fraught relationship with the statue and fought to have it removed, are now embracing it in a formal museum context. The show also marks the 50th anniversary of the original "Rocky" film, underscoring the statue's transformation from a cinematic prop to a cultural monument, and invites visitors to reflect on what deserves commemoration in public art.