(upbeat music) We go back in time and learn about the medical care given to Revolutionary War soldiers.

We take a look at the innovations that go into maintaining a popular Philadelphia tourist attraction.

Plus, a feast for the eyes and the soul.

The Magic Garden Studio opens to the public.

Welcome to the show.

Once an auto garage, Isaiah Zagar's studio has been transformed into a mosaic wonderland.

And now it's open to the public.

The Magic Garden Studio is a fully mosaic art environment created by the artist Isaiah Zagar.

Isaiah has created six art environments throughout Philadelphia.

He's also done more than 200 murals and he's been working in Philadelphia for more than 50 years.

In 2007, Isaiah and Julia Zagar were looking for another space to buy.

They decided on this building.

It was a former automotive warehouse, and that's when Isaiah decided that he wanted to mosaic a monster, he said.

We're walking into the part of the space where Isaiah started creating his work here, transforming this warehouse space.

And he started on the walls and then moved to creating these more sort of sculptural walls here.

They actually have rebar arches inside of them.

That was what they started out as.

And then he just kind of built them up in layers.

He created these pieces, which we call bottle works or plate works, where he would use leftover grout to make kind of a little brick and then stick all of these things that had been donated to him.

He also would add Mexican folk art pieces by artists who are known worldwide for their crafts.

And that really started out when Isaiah and Julia were Peace Corps volunteers in Peru and then eventually they started traveling to Mexico and that's where a lot of these kinds of pieces came from.

The style that we see in the mosaics here in the studio is called the Zagar method.

This mosaic right here is made up of six different panels that he already had and then he would begin to work directly on the wall around it, gluing the tiles and the mirror up and then putting this colorful grout over top of it.

Every space at the studio is really covered with artwork.

This was a style that Isaiah started doing when he was 29 years old after he experienced a mental health crisis and he said this was like therapy for him.

It's pretty amazing when you think that Isaiah was 68 years old when he started this project here and then he worked on it for 14 more years after that.

In 2023, when he and Julia donated the building to Philadelphia's Magic Gardens, it was because Isaiah had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, but he really wanted people to be able to see this space and we're actually now working with the Parkinson's community to think about how that disease could have been affecting Isaiah's brain.

We know that he would have been experiencing those symptoms the entire time that he was working on this space.

I'm here with Stacey who's going to take us up to the second floor.

The elevator is part of the artwork as well as the entire elevator shaft are all mosaic too.

So Isaiah spared nothing here in this space and definitely one of the most unique elevators in Philadelphia.

We're here on the second floor of the studio.

Besides being fully mosaic, this is also the space that houses Isaiah's collection of work from the past 60 plus years.

Paintings, drawings, mixed media works, prints, and work with other artists to create textiles and folk art pieces.

So that is all housed here and our team at Philadelphia's Magic Gardens is really working on archiving that work.

These are just a few of the mosaic panels that Isaiah's made throughout his career.

You can see that we sort of have them taped off like this.

That means that this is one whole mosaic right here.

They make up huge pieces that go together kind of like a puzzle.

Some of the iconic pieces that Isaiah will use in his mosaics are these doily tiles.

They're made using doily that's just pressed into a slab of clay and then fired in the kiln and you get these really cool unique patterns.

These are Cervak water jet tiles.

You'll see these often in his artwork.

They're clean-cut and they're often made using drawings that he gave to the company.

But you'll see a lot of different materials throughout the mosaics.

Most people don't really know what's inside of this building.

There's a lifetime of artwork.

We're really excited to share all of this with the public.

We want this to be a learning and making space.

This space was the last area that Isaiah was working on.

It has a kitchen and an outdoor space and this was where he often would make art but also just hang out sometimes.

The bathrooms, really nothing was left untouched by his mosaics and even though Isaiah has not been working at this scale for the last several years, he is still making more work.

It's really important that Isaiah and Julia had the forethought to donate this space to Philadelphia's Magic Gardens because our preservation team is working every day to make sure that this work will be here for a long, long time and preserve the Zagar's legacy.

Now we go behind the scenes of the National Constitution Center to see how a local engineering firm is using innovation to improve guest experiences.

I'm Tony DeLeonardo, Principal at Wick Fisher White Engineers.

I'm Tim Winkes, I'm Director of Operations for the National Constitution Center.

We design building engineering systems.

And we operate them.

Wick Fisher White is a Philadelphia-based mechanical, electrical, engineering, and fire protection firm.

We are celebrating our 125th anniversary in 2026.

It starts at the architect's concept, the engineer will look and do the design process.

If you ever notice, when you enter a building, you see the interior finishes, the floors, the ceiling, but you really don't see the heartbeat, the internal workings of a building.

They're all behind the scenes, providing comfort, cooling, air quality, safety, to make sure that you're comfortable.

Building systems 100 years ago was the same basic, it had a fan and a coil for HVAC systems, but you didn't have all this other advanced technology.

You had wall fans instead of air conditioning units.

You didn't have safety devices on electrical equipment like GFI circuits.

We used to draw everything by hand and we used to run these mylars or linens through a ammonia-based blueprinting machine.

Now today we have AutoCAD, which now we send directly to the copier or the printer and now it's more efficient, easier, quicker.

This is computer-aided drafting.

We're using a drafting software called Revit to model our actual building and floor plans.

As opposed to before when we were doing everything by hand and drawing it two-dimensionally, this is actually a three-dimensional software.

It allows us to coordinate what's actually going to go in the field.

We did work at the National Constitution Center, which is a museum that has documents and it has artifacts.

These are very old paper and very old artwork and they need to be environmentally controlled.

And humidity is something that could degradate a document or an artifact.

And we need to maintain certain temperatures and specific humidity so it doesn't deteriorate over time.

The chillers provide chilled water to all the air handling units that supply airflow and cooling to these spaces.

You'll see exhaust systems, fans, fire protection systems.

They have a state-of-the-art building management system which controls comfort, airflow, temperature.

If there's something wrong, it'll send an alarm back to the specific system.

This is our building automation system.

It works off of Siemens and automated logic.

We can control any set point, any temperature, anything that you need to do or facilitate any humidity or temperature control throughout the building, we do right from this computer.

This is something you can also use in your house and relate it to your home.

It doesn't have to be a big museum or a big complex like the National Constitution Center.

You can have a programmable thermostat that saves you energy that can adjust the temperatures when you're not in the home.

It's the same thing as a building management system that can provide energy efficiency, monitor carbon dioxide.

It could save you money when you're not in the house.

Advanced technology has made us more efficient, it's making things quicker.

We still need the engineering expertise.

The battle for freedom was costly.

Out of concern for his soldiers' health, General George Washington built a hospital.

Arts and culture reporter Peter Crimmins and videographer Emily take us to the ruins of that institution in Chester County, Pennsylvania.

- For over 300 years, people have been coming here to historic Yellow Springs in Chester County to take the water for their health.

So when General George Washington wanted to build the first and only dedicated military hospital for the Revolutionary War.

Of course, he came to a known health spot.

This is the monument ruins of that hospital.

Now Valley Forge was about 12 miles that way, and that's where about 2,000 soldiers died of disease.

Things like typhoid fever, dysentery, smallpox.

A Revolutionary War soldier was more likely to die by disease than combat.

Now local historian Sandra Moemeyer said George Washington was at risk of losing his entire army to disease.

That was his biggest worry, that the illness would decimate the army rather than the military.

And of course what happened at Yellow Springs, it was all disease, it was not battle wounds.

This existed as a hospital for about 10 years and in that time standard military medical procedures grew by leaps and bounds.

Nurses like Abigail Hartman Rice would clean sheets, serve hot food, dispose of dead soldiers uniforms to avoid contagion and even wash their hands.

That's pretty basic stuff now but at the time it was groundbreaking.

A lot of medicine that we know today even in our modern medicine has occurred from military battles because when you're on the field decisions have to be made in a snap and doctors actually discover things when they're actually forced to make these rash decisions.

So the doctor who ran this hospital Dr.

Bodo Otto did an amazing thing.

He turned this herb garden into the main apothecary for the entire Continental Army.

And Abigail, she was pretty amazing too.

She got married at 16, she died at 47.

In between she had 21 children.

And yet she had the commitment to spend time here and be a nurse.

She saw the need and she was just a caring, gentle woman full of good heart.

I'm sure there were many tasks that needed to be done and it was happening so quickly.

You know, new soldiers coming in, some going back, unfortunately some passing away.

So she probably provided the gentleness, the care, the warmth and the ear to listen because these soldiers were young.

She may not have realized that she was a part of a feminine history.

She did it from the goodness of her heart but she actually was a step up for women and women being part of the Revolutionary War and the fight for freedom.

While working at the hospital, Abigail Hartman Rice contracted typhoid fever and that's what killed her.

She paid the ultimate price to be one of America's first frontline workers.

And our first responders are still giving it their all.

Thank you.

Project 440 is preparing the next generation of musicians to use their talents to change their communities.

(soulful music) Growing up in the South, there were definitely generations of my ancestors who sacrificed.

There's a song by Iris DeMint called "Working on a World That I May Never See."

♪ By people who were working on it ♪ They were working on a world that would be better than the one they lived in.

And I am a product of their blood sweat and tears and their lives and that's only additional encouragement for me to continue the work that I do.

I've never met somebody who uses the platform that they have for the benefit of others as much as Joseph does.

He's very passionate about music, he's very passionate about education, he's very passionate about helping young people, he's worldwide accomplished as the principal bass of the Philadelphia Orchestra, he's broken glass ceilings all over the place and he doesn't just do it for himself, he brings other people with him.

I am the founder and vision advisor for Project 440.

Project 440 is an organization that works with high school youth using music as a tool to teach the life skills needed to thrive.

We have a special guest.

Some of you might know him from Project 440 as the founder.

Some of you might know him as the principal bassist for the Philadelphia Orchestra.

But without Joe, this organization wouldn't exist.

This is Joseph Conyers.

Hello, everyone.

I'm excited that you all have made the choice and decision to be part of doing good.

It's young people using their love of music, love of the arts, and all the traits inherent in being an artist.

So like collaboration, compromise, and project management.

All these students get together and create service learning projects to serve their community with an art-centric focus.

They're working with their friends, identifying a need in their community, and trying to find a way to make their part of society better.

In a world where it might feel like sometimes we can't do anything, to know that, you know what, maybe I can make a difference.

It may seem small to the world, but it could be big and life-changing for someone else or the community.

I can't wait to hear about all your projects.

Good luck to all of you.

I'm also the music director or the conductor for the All-City Orchestra, which reaches all the top-performing students of the School District of Philadelphia.

And being involved in that program, you get very connected to the students and their needs.

The more I learned, the more we started to shift our programming to be more specific to meet the needs of the students we were serving.

At that time, it was primarily music students.

But we've grown because those music students have friends in other art disciplines who also want to be part of this opportunity to take their gifts and make something good.

Create these projects that can serve the community and get other young people involved.

To see the work that he's doing, you see it first hand.

I remember attending a concert at the Mann Center about a year ago, which is where the Philadelphia Orchestra does their summer residency.

As soon as the concert finished, he stepped down stage.

A bunch of kids ran to him.

They were so excited to see him.

What motivates Joseph?

He's a very layered person.

For music, if you've seen him perform at the orchestra, he has the most expressive face of anybody on stage.

You can tell that he's playing from his soul.

For his experience with the kids, he wants to open doors wherever possible.

Why 440?

We are called Project 440 because 440 Hertz is the pitch A. The pitch A is the first note that you hear at every orchestra concert.

When the concertmaster stands and you hear that one note that's given, and then the whole orchestra tunes to that pitch A before we start every concert.

So we want our young people to be leaders in their communities through music.

Music can be a pathway to possibilities.

Our guest today, bassist Gavin Hardy, is a testament to that.

Gavin, thanks so much for being here and it's great to meet you.

Thank you for having me.

It's great to meet you too.

You're currently a student at the Curtis Institute of Music.

You're in your second year, but you found a love for music pretty early.

When did you start playing and what instrument did you start playing?

Yes.

I started on the piano when I was four and I actually got into it through a Raisin Brand commercial that I saw on TV.

And it was a guy that was playing the piano in a shop and people were coming in.

And I just saw the positive impact that it had on people's moods.

And that's what made me want to start.

- You went from piano to what instrument next?

And then when did you get to the bass?

- Yes, I started, I switched from piano to the violin once I got to middle school.

So I started on the violin and decided I wanted to do something different.

So I switched to the cello and then, you know, I was afraid to ask my teacher, but I asked to switch to the bass and she let me.

So I switched to the bass and here I am now.

And that was, you were 12 when you switched to the bass, is that right?

Yes.

When did you know that music was something you wanted to do professionally, that this was something that was going to be your future?

I'd say at a young age, you know, I always knew that I wanted to have music in my life.

It wasn't until around COVID times, you know, around 2020 that I made that decision.

And that's when I just started to take bass a little more seriously and start taking lessons.

So I started taking lessons and this was, you know, still kind of in the wintertime of 2020.

And I heard one of my teacher's students play a piece.

And instantly from that moment, I was inspired and I told myself, I'm going to start taking bass a lot more seriously and just see what happens.

There's the bass, there's the upright bass, the contrabass, and double bass.

What are the differences between these instruments or are they all the same?

They're all the same.

I know it's confusing.

You know, we have so many different names, but they're ultimately all the same.

But the different names stem from different genres of music and different parts of the world.

So for example, bluegrass, you know, the bass is referred to as the bull fiddle, bass fiddle, bass violin, or the big violin, you know, depending on who you talk to.

Spray out the big violin.

Right, right, yeah, yeah.

So, so yeah, those are, those are some of those names.

And then, you know, different parts of the world might say contrabass or double bass, but I'll say that the bass and the double bass are the same instrument.

That's good to know.

You have performed in gigs, right?

So what's it like when you have to transport it?

Because when you came into our studio today, it was a lot.

- Right, right.

It can be stressful.

You know, we have to carry the bass.

And you know, fortunately we have a wheel that we can put in the bottom so that we can wheel it around.

But you know, I play sitting, so I have a stool with me that I carry, even on the plane.

So, you know, the stool will come sliding down the, you know, conveyor belt, the baggage plane.

And people are just looking like, "Who brought the stool?"

And then I go to pick it up and they're like, "Oh."

You know?

Yeah.

It's not a carry-on size, that's for sure.

Exactly, yeah.

So, you know, we have to have, you know, a big flight trunk that we check our base as oversized at the airport.

So it can be, you know, it can be a lot, carrying a lot at one time.

And you have to hope that it all comes in one piece, right?

In one piece, yep.

Music is not your only passion.

You are an influencer on a couple of social media platforms, specifically Instagram and TikTok, where you kind of show some of your other passions.

Talk to me about that.

Yeah, so actually on TikTok, I have an account titled The Fragrance Freak, and that's where I post a lot of fragrance content 'cause I'm a fragrance connoisseur.

So ever since a young age, I had been collecting fragrances.

And it dates back to the story where, you know, I was maybe in second grade and my dad told me, "If you behave for one week straight in school, I'll buy you a cologne."

And you know, I barely made it, but you know, he gave me the cologne and then, you know, I always enjoyed the way it smelled and then it just kind of took off from there.

So throughout the years I've been collecting and so I started to want to share my knowledge with the world and just see where things went.

So you have an ear for music and a nose for cologne.

And then on Instagram, I know you do some personal fitness, personal training videos.

You also talk about your journey with the bass on Instagram, right?

Right, yeah.

So I'll post a lot of videos of my playing from different recitals and things like that.

I'll also post some of the travels and events that I get to be a part of through music.

So yeah.

Do you hope to inspire other young performers?

I do, yes.

Yes.

So, you know, through posting and being transparent about where you are and, you know, even posting your mistakes, it can be inspiring to other people to know, you know, this person's not perfect, you know, we're all the same in this, in this game.

So.

Well, we will see you on another one of WHYY's programs on stage at Curtis later this year.

We're really excited to see that, but we can't have you leave, you ought to know, without playing for us.

And so, we will see that performance in just a few minutes.

Gavin, so great to meet you.

- All right, great to meet you as well.

- Okay, that is our show.

And as promised, here's Gavin Hardy.

Have a good night, everyone.

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