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Realizing that a new lens is required to view how the art of the last 50 years has influenced contemporary art practice, several curators and institutions in the city of Philadelphia have mounted ambitious exhibitions linking past to present and future in cutting-edge contexts. Diane Burko and Judith Brodsky were co-organizers of Philadelphia Focuses on Women in the Visual Arts in 1974. Fifty years later, they have organized (re)FOCUS in Philadelphia using the original FOCUS to discuss how the Feminist Art Movement of the 1970s first brought issues of representation, marginalization, social justice, violence, equality, and empowerment to the art world and how those issues resonate even more today. Jodi Throckmorton who initiated Rising Sun: Artists in an Uncertain America, an exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the African American Museum of Philadelphia along with Dejay Duckett, director of curatorial services at the AAMP examined the question: “Is the sun rising or setting on the experiment of American democracy?” Installations by 20 celebrated artists explored themes of equality, free speech, and other tenets of democracy. Sid Sachs at University of the Arts restored women artists of Pop art to art history in an exhibition in 2010-2011, and has gone on to illuminate other artists who have had impact on contemporary art practice, but who have not received rightful attention. Jessica Smith, Curator, Strategic Initiatives, Philadelphia Museum of Art and Richard Torchia, curator of the Arcadia University Gallery, will address the issue from their perspectives.