Public Programs
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| Three Akshas perform at the 2010 Magic Beyond the Gardens Fundraiser. Photo by Gabe Kirchheimer |
Music & Mosaics Concert SeriesFamily Jams ExhibitionsART/GAGE Past Events
View PMG's Four Major 2012 Programs press release here.
Music & Mosaics Concert Series
Continuing into 2011, PMG is collaborating with other South Street businesses to bring visitors a "Fourth Friday" weekend full of entertainment!
The Music & Mosaics Concert Series, held fourth Saturdays during warmer months, provides a venue outside of the status quo for musicians, offering truly unique acoustics and visuals. These BYOB concerts are $10 for adults and $7 for students/members. Come early to stroll through the Gardens and stay late to enjoy Music & Mosaics at PMG!
Join us every second Sunday for 
a variety of mosaic themed, hands-on workshops and kid-friendly tours. Family Jams workshops generally begin at 12:00 NOON and end at 4:00PM. Learn more about the work of Isaiah Zagar, Philadelphia's Magic Gardens and South Street history on our kid-friendly tours at 2:00PM and 4:00PM.
Past Family Jams have included book arts projects, poetry workshops, and special guest performances.
All Family Jams workshops and activities are FREE with admission. Tours are $3 per person plus admission. Family memberships are available for free admission and ongoing discounts.
Exhibitions
Visit our News and Events page for more information about our current exhibitions.
Inspired by our annual Summer Solstice celebrations, ART/GAGE is an all-day, block-wide celebration of Philadelphia's artistic creativity. On Saturday, July 30, the 1000 block of South Street will be filled with performances, live art, activities, and a street fair.
Vendor and performance details will be announced July 1.
Another great way to be involved in the festival is through sponsorship. Your business or organization can be featured on ART/GAGE t-shirts, in our festival program, and through a variety of media channels. More than 1,000 people are expected to attend!
ART/GAGE Sponsorship Options
PIFAIn April 2011, PMG will highlight early twentieth-century French artists and writers whose names and/or references appear in the tiles and concrete of Isaiah Zagar’s 3,000-square-foot mosaic garden. These three events will bring to life the artworks and words of creative minds that have greatly influenced Zagar:
Immersed in Art: Visionary and Vernacular Artists from France and Beyond
Thursday, April 14, 7:00 PM
$15/adult; $12/student or member
PMG presents art historians Valerie Rousseau and Dan Schank, who will lecture about Art Brut -- French "outsider art” -- and its connection to past and present visionary and folk artists, including PMG founder Isaiah Zagar.Zagar will discuss his own visionary art influences, particularly in relationship to Art Brut.Afterward, meet the lecturers and Zagar, and participate in a group discussion and question session.
Poetic Passageways
Wednesday, April 20 and Thursday, April 21, 7:00 PM
$15/adult; $12/ student or member
The mosaiced corridors of Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens, Isaiah Zagar’s non-traditional visionary art environment, will come to life through a series of exquisite, evocative vignettes. In Poetic Passageways, choreographer/dancer Olive Prince (Olive Prince Dance and Drexel University), composer/musician Christopher Farrell (Rit Mo Collective and Temple University), and other performers will marry movement, music, and language into a site-specific performance. View a sneak preview here!
Interpreting the poetry, philosophy, and art of Dadaists and Surrealists such as Apollinaire, Maillarme, Breton, and Duchamp, dancers and musicians will engage guests with playful and explorative pieces that relate these works to the massive art installation that serves as their stage.Isaiah Zagar, creator of Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens, drew inspiration from these historic figures for this large, visionary piece.
Audiences will wander through various performance stations, interacting within both the space itself and the wondrous movements and sounds.
Mosaic Mural Tours
Saturdays at 12pm and 4pm; Sundays at 4pm; or call to reserve a private tour for groups of 6+
$10/adult; includes admission to PMG
Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens will be open to the public every day during this festival and will highlight Zagar’s French artistic influences through ongoing tours of the space. These tourswill discuss specific French references and texts, as well as Zagar’s techniques, narratives, and South Street history.
PMG's PIFA programs were sponsored in part by:
The Big Green Earth Store, Eyes Gallery, Copa Banana, and New Image Art & Framing.
One Book, One Philadelphia
In celebration of War Danc
es by Sherman Alexie, Philadelphia's Magic Gardens presents Battle of the Bios, an opportunity for local authors and storytellers to compete for a $100 Grand Prize.
This event is presented in conjunction with the Free Library of Philadelphia's One Book, One Philadelphia 2011 program. See our News and Events page for additional details!
Summer Solstice 2010
Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens to Host 3rd Annual Summer Solstice Festival, "Once Upon A Tile”
Saturday, June 26, 2010 from 1:00pm – 10:00pm
Join Philadelphia’s Ma
gic Gardens in an all-out celebration of long summer days at the third annual Summer Solstice Festival, spanning 1:00pm to 10:00pm on June 26, 2010. This year’s Summer Solstice Festival, "Once Upon A Tile,” will be PMG’s largest event of the year, featuring music, dancing, poetry readings, and interactive activities, all with narrative themes. The day’s programming will tell many interesting stories, whether it be through song, poetry, painting, or visual arts. From 1:00pm to 6:00pm, roam the adjacent Kater and Alder Streets where a wide variety of artists and food vendors (Renaissance Sausage, Sugar Philly, and more) will sell their wares. Evening refreshments for the 2010 Summer Solstice Festival have been generously donated by Fergie’s Pub and Art of the Ages’ Root Liquor.
The entertainment starts at 2:00pm, where you can become a part of the story with an interactive songwriting performance by Avi Wisnia. Eclectic performances, both indoors and outside in the mosaiced corridors, will keep you entertained throughout the day. Fun hands-on art activities for kids and adults will allow Solstice celebrators the opportunity to make (and take home) their own work of art. Ana Vicarra’s beautiful site-specific goddess candle installation will illuminate the outdoor labyrinth during the evening. "Once Upon A Tile” will conclude with a lively dance party led by Sonic Liberation Front, an Afro-Cuban jazz group who will set a stimulating musical backdrop for dancing and finish with eclectic beats spun by DJ Ginkgo.
April 23 - June 1
Embracing the theme of collaborative work, Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens is hosting Creative Correspondence: Equal Exchange Collaborative Works exhibition of the pieces created by students with mental impairment from Philly’s Oasis Art Center and working artists in the local community. Oasis is a studio devoted to the art and life-skills education of adults with mental disabilities.
Creative Correspondence: Equal Exchange Collaborative Works, will open with a public reception on Friday, April 23 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm and be on display through June 1. The purpose of this project is to expose Oasis’ students to a variety of new ideas and imagery and push them to be inspired by each other as well as other working artists, while also providing a social and professional connection to the art community in Philadelphia. The participants have been paired with one another according to related ideas and inspirations.
This show’s pieces are intended to mimic the exquisite corpse technique; in which an artist records part of an image on paper and then passes it along to another artist to continue. The pieces encourage a correspondence between the students and participating artists, creating small dialogues and temporary symbiotic interactions in which each participant can benefit from the skills and creative energy of the other. PMG's founding artist Isaiah Zagar will participate, along with over 20 additional local artists.
Philagrafika Community Partner
"Philagrafika 2010: The Graphic Unconscious is the inaugural presentation of a multi-sited international festival of festival of contemporary art that will occur in Philadelphia every four years. Philagrafika 2010 will focus on artistic practices that engage the visual, intellectual, and creative frontiers in printmaking and how these approaches relate to social and political issues in the public sphere."
PMG will host two major exhibitions during Philagrafika 2010: Fifty Years of Printmaking: Works on Paper by Isaiah Zagar and Tell-Tale Tiles & Fractured Fantasies.
During Philagrafika 2010, PMG will also host two community events in conjunction with the Free Library of Philadelphia's One Book, One Philadelphia program:
What's Your Story?, a family book-making activity, will take place on Sunday, January 21, 2010 from 12:00pm to 5:00pm.
Zine Machine, a zine-making workshop and presentation will take place on Wednesday, February 3, 2010, from 6:00pm to 9:00pm.
Cinco De Mayo at Philadelphia's Magic Gardens!
• Free Admission
• Bilingual Tours
• Live music and local artists
• Traditional Mexican refreshments
• Art activities for the whole family
PMG is proud to partner with Casa Monarca for a celebration that honors this important Mexican battle. On Sunday, May 2 from 12:00 – 5:00 pm, PMG will have hands-on art activities for families, traditional Mexican refreshments and kid-friendly, bilingual tours focusing on the Latin American sculptures embedded in PMG's mosaics. Amidst the glittering walls, view live musical performances and beautiful crafts made by local Mexican artists.
This event is sponsored by Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, PECO, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and Casa Monarca.
For more information please call 215-733-0390.
Tell-Tale Tiles & Fractured Fantasies Ceramics Exhibition
In partnership with the Tile Heritage Foundation, PMG will host a juried art exhibition of tile and mosaic artworks called Tell-Tale Tiles & Fractured Fantasies (TTTFF). The exhibition is inspired by the rich history of tile and mosaic art in the Philadelphia area over the past 100 years.
Tell-Tale Tiles & Fractured Fantasies explores contemporary tile making and ceramic mosaic as a story-telling medium in the spirit of artists Henry Chapman Mercer and Isaiah Zagar. The call for entry requested narrative tiles that could include social, political, personal, and family stories. Renowned ceramicist and art historian Susan Tunick selected the works for the exhibition.
Held in the gallery of Philadelphia's Magic Gardens, this month-long exhibition will provide an appropriate venue for tile and mosaic artists from around the country to make powerful and socially meaningful statements.
Calendar of events during Tell-Tale Tiles & Fractured Fantasies:
Friday, March 19-Monday, April 19:Tell-Tale Tiles and Fractured Fantasies Exhibition
Daily Museum Admission: Adults $4, Kids 6-12 $2, Kids 5 and under FREE
Friday, March 19 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm: Opening reception for TTTFF
Cost: Adults $4 (Suggested Museum Admission Fee), PMG Members FREE
Monday-Tuesday, March 29-30 from 9:00am to 4:00pm: Pre-NCECA Public Mosaic Mural Workshop with founding artist, Isaiah Zagar
Cost: Early Registration: $200 plus $20 materials fee; After March 12, 2010, $250 plus $20 materials fee
To register for the NCECA workshop, call PMG at 215.733.0390 or sign up online
Tuesday, March 30 at 6:30pm: Lecture: "Henry Chapman Mercer and the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works" by Vance Koehler, Curator of Collections at the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works. To register for a seat, call PMG at 215.733.0390. Walk-in registration will be accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Cost: $7/students and PMG Members, $10/Adults, includes Museum Admission and light refreshments
Wednesday-Saturday, March 31-April 5: NCECA conference, PA Convention Center
Thursday, April 1 at 8:00am: Isaiah Zagar lecture at NCECA conference
Thursday, April 1 from 5:00pm- 8:00pm: NCECA reception
Cost: NCECA participants FREE ($2 suggested donation), Adults suggested $4 donation
Saturday, April 24-April 25 from 9:00am to 4:00pm: Public Mosaic Mural Workshop with founding artist, Isaiah Zagar
Four of the participating artists were chosen to receive excellence awards: Shanna Fliegel (Best in Show), Ashley Gray (Second Place), Shawn Newton (Third Place), and Edwin Mighell (Tile Heritage Award). In addition, two special prizes, The Spirit of Mercer and The Spirit of Zagar, will be selected during the exhibition by Vance Koehler, Curator of Collections at the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, and Isaiah Zagar respectively.
Tell-Tale Tiles & Fractured Fantasies was generously underwritten by "Exhibition Hosting Sponsor" LATICRETE International, Inc. Other important sponsors are NS Ceramic, Inc., The Chicago Mosaic School, AMACO, Ed Pawlack Tile, Solar Antique Tiles, Laguna Clay Company, Paragon Industries, L.P., and the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works.
Download the Tell-Tale Tales & Fractured Fantasies press release [PDF]
"This so-called 'literary' side of the craft, this storytelling... has been my primary impulse or inspiration... But if tiles could tell no story, inspire or teach nobody, and only serve to produce aesthetic thrills, I would have stopped making them long ago."
-Henry Chapman Mercer
Other Media Mentions For TTTFF:
The Phoenix: Philly Weekend Guide
About.com Guide to Philadelphia
Fifty Years of Printmaking: Works on Paper by Isaiah Zagar
January 15, 2010 - March 5, 2010
Though best known for his shimmering mosaic murals on South Street, Philadelphia's Magic Gardens founding artist Isaiah Zagar will reveal another, rarely-seen side of his art in January 2010. Throughout his expansive career, Zagar has also produced hundreds of etchings and woodcuts, and these prints, which are the focal point of the recent award-winning documentary, In a Dream, will be featured at PMG as part of Philagrafika 2010.
Fifty Years of Printmaking: Works on Paper by Isaiah Zagar will feature a varied selection of intricate prints which chronicle Zagar's life from his time as a young artist at New York City's renowned Pratt Institute through his marriage, the development of his children, and birth of his grandchildren. Prints created during his travels to Peru and India will also be included. The exhibition will run from Friday, January 15, 2010 through Friday, March 5, 2010.
South Street Winter Solstice Celebration
We're celebrating the Winter Solstice by forgetting about the cold with a day full of warm climate-themed performances and hands-on art workshops. And don't miss this opportunity to finish up your holiday shopping. Participating businesses and restaurants along South Street will offer discounted shopping and food specials, so you can save money and support your local businesses.
Admission is $7/general admission, $5/PMG Members, $4/children aged 6-12, and FREE/children under 6.
WINTER SOLSTICE FESTIVAL: December 19, 12:00 pm to 8:00 pm- 4:00-5:00 pm - Robert Fournier
Latin classical guitarist - 5:00-6:00 pm - Joe Kille & Emiliano Rodriguez
Acoustic guitar and vocal performances - 6:30-7:00 pm - Kelly Ray and Leslie Mitchell
Tango dance instruction - 7:00-8:00 pm - Latino Dance Fiesta with DJ Ginkgo
Get your salsa dance on!
Flyer back - Participating businesses
Philly Fringe Festival
PMG hosts In(Visible) Keepsakes — New Philadelphia Poets"Come witness the birth of a poem, the burial of another, and the wedding of word, music, and image as the New Philadelphia Poets locate a collective tongue in the city of brotherly love. Featuring poetic fortunes, imbibements, and prizes, In(visible) Keepsakes is an ecstatic celebration of language and community." More information at the Philly Fringe Festival website.
Philadelphia Open Studio Tours
"Drunken Teapot" by Jimmy Clark
- Jack Larimore
- Jimmy & Angela Clark
- Charmaine Caire
- Isaiah Zagar
- Visit POST for more details.
