Unspecified/General

In the South Street neighbourhood just south of historic downtown Philadelphia, Philadelphia's Magic Gardens is one of the most distinctive immersive folk-art environments in the United States. The half-block, three-storey indoor and outdoor complex was created by the local artist Isaiah Zagar (born 1939), whose decades-long obsession with mosaic art has transformed nearly two hundred individual buildings throughout South Philadelphia into a coordinated outdoor public-art landscape unlike any other in the country. The Magic Gardens themselves occupy the formal core of Zagar's broader Philadelphia mosaic ecosystem. Zagar began the project in 1994 by transforming a vacant lot adjacent to his South Street studio into a small outdoor mosaic-encrusted public space. Over the following decade, the project expanded steadily to cover the surrounding vacant lots and a series of formerly disused row-house buildings, with every available surface covered in mosaic tile, mirrors, hand-painted ceramics, bicycle wheels, glass bottles, found objects and personal artefacts donated by the artist's family and friends. The site was nearly lost in 2002 when the property owner attempted to evict the project to sell the land for development. A long, ultimately successful community campaign secured the project's permanent preservation as the non-profit Philadelphia's Magic Gardens, which formally opened to the public in May 2008 and now operates the site as a museum, art education centre and venue for contemporary mosaic art programmes. The gardens themselves descend from a small streetfront indoor gallery through several levels of outdoor courtyards, with mosaic-encrusted walls rising twenty feet on each side, hand-poured concrete benches, small fountains and the artist's celebrated hand-lettered text drawing from his own writings and from quoted philosophers, mystics and poets. A continuous educational programme of mosaic workshops, walking tours of the surrounding Zagar-decorated buildings (some four hundred at last count) and contemporary art exhibitions round out the offering. Modestly priced and self-guided, the gardens are an easy, unforgettable hour's visit.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: 1020 South Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Telephone: 215-733-0390

Website: phillymagicgardens.org

Opening Date: 01/05/2008