Preserving An Intricate, Crowded Artwork That Hadn’t Been Meant To Last

Built over 27 years (and counting) by mosaicist Isaiah Zagar and open to the public for a decade, the Magic Gardens installation in Philadelphia is now wildly popular – and the visitor traffic means repairing wear and tear that Zagar and his colleagues had never anticipated. Ashley Hahn reports on the program that’s now been set up to inspect and protect the countless tiny pieces of material in the mosaics that cover the site.