Round Museum

Down at the gym the workout is about to begin. See, the cones are all arranged in a way that's going to wear you out. Run circles, zig-zags or back and forth until the whistle blows. Catch your breath. Do it again.

07.06.26

Bumble’s sunflower home may be missing some its ray flowers, but it is all hers! Even when the petals begin to drop, the plant’s energy will be fully focused to maturing the seeds in the central Round.

07.05.26

Before the 1830s, fireworks were essentially monochromatic: they glowed with the orangey hues of burning embers and more dimly than fireworks today. Bringing color to fireworks took a chemical revolution—a transformation of the basic gunpowder formula that had been used for centuries, and the addition of new ingredients to the fireworkers’ toolkit: metal salts, aluminum, magnesium, and other materials that were becoming more widely available with the growth of chemical industries.

"Flash! Bang! Boom! A History of Fireworks"
Science History Institute
Philadelphia, PA

The sign reads “restrooms downstairs.” So, follow the stairwell down… one flight… then two, keep going. Walk through the hallway, around to your left. Go past the locked double doors. The constant clanking sound is just the old boiler system in the sub-basement. Nothing to worry about. Keeeeep going. Through the next set of double doors and restrooms are in the back corner. Oh… don’t stare into the Black Porthole. And don’t turn your back on it, either…

07.03.26

This purple ring just hangs out there, almost like a juggler that's been frozen in mid-air. Not your typical bike rack, its festive Roundness invites bicyclists to lock up their rides in style.

07.02.26

In Rei Kawakubo's ensemble for Comme des Garçons, a lacuna situated at the abdomen evokes the Japanese philosophical concept of mu (nothingness, or nonbeing). By framing the midsection as a literal and figurative opening, she suggested that the vessel's emptiness is the very locus of creation. The stiff structure encircling the navel echoes the bulbous contours of the gourd-shaped bamboo hanakago (flower basket). Designed to hold ikebana (flower arrangements), this Japanese utilitarian object was both functional and talismanic.

We mark our 10th Year of Roundness with gratitude for more than 150 contributors who've shared their Round treasures and stories. We enjoy seeing the world through your eyes. The Round Museum explores the nature of round things. Circle. Sphere. Coil. Loop. Rounds are everywhere, in the near and far distances from the smallest atom to the grandest orbit, each freighted with meaning and message. It is the most common and universal shape. "Round" is about point of view, perspective with symmetry and balance, wholeness and limitlessness.

With these strong northern gusts, looks like the fun got away from you. There it sits lodged in the dunes and you can’t walk in there. Maybe there’s an upside to a lost beach ball? Is this a mixed blessing?

06.29.26

Some days can be really dreary -- cloudy, chilly, a soft rain falling. But getting outside for a walk around the neighborhood is a necessary antidote from this gray monotony. Walking by a stone retaining wall, a surprising splash of color in the drain catches my eye. A little river rock painted with a rainbow sits purposefully on the edge of the pipe. Are the Munchkins about? Has the Rainbow Hunt begun?

RAINBOW WEEK for PRIDE MONTH
06.28.26

“River Soundings” rises as a beacon, plumbing the depths of the Delaware River in Philadelphia. This public art commission, shaped by history and phenomena of the river, conjures an aesthetic resonance of place. The art is inspired by what is considered one of the world's oldest navigational instruments: a device called a lead line, used to measure the depth of waterways. A lead line is a rope marked in 6-foot increments, or fathoms. Vertical elements of the sculpture evoke boat masts and rigging. Each cable symbolizes an individual lead line.