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HomeNewsThe TileWorks of Bucks County will host nationally-recognized Tile Festival: May 21-22,...

The TileWorks of Bucks County will host nationally-recognized Tile Festival: May 21-22, 2022

The TileWorks of Bucks County is proud to present The 22nd Tile Festival. The festival will take place:

  • May 21, 2022 10:00am – 5:00pm
  • May 22, 2022 10:00am – 4:00pm

For two days, the building and grounds at the TileWorks will become a marketplace of bespoke contemporary, vintage and antique tile displayed by makers and collectors from around the globe. In addition, there will be demonstrations, free tours of the TileWorks, and activities for the “Tile Curious.”  Local food trucks will be available for visitors to enjoy. A small entrance fee of $7.00 will be collected at the gate and will go toward historic restoration of the site.  

For two days, the building and grounds at the TileWorks will become a marketplace of bespoke contemporary, vintage and antique tile displayed by makers and collectors from around the globe.

The Tile Festival was introduced in 1998. Co-hosted by The Tile Heritage Foundation and the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, the tradition ensued for over two decades until the present. The TileWorks of Bucks County is proud to partner with the community, corporate, and industry sponsors.

The County of Bucks and Doylestown are a destination for Arts and Culture tourism. The TileWorks has always contributed to the creative economy of the county and to the tile-making narrative in libraries, museums and educational institutions across the country. For the love of tile, The TileWorks is inviting the entire community: artisans, makers, collectors, historians, architects, designers, homeowners, and future tilemakers to its grounds to amplify its tile stories.

 Last year, a newly formed 501(c)(3) took over as the operating entity at The Moravian Pottery and TileWorks. The TileWorks of Bucks County with The County of Bucks as its partner, now stewards the TileWorks site as it stands: a National Historic Landmark, a working history museum and a contemporary pottery. The transition was seamless and allowed for continuous operation.

There is new life at the TileWorks, with intent to amplify the myriad stories that are embedded in the walls of its vernacular Spanish colonial mission building with its arcaded balconies, towering chimney stacks, courtyard and 6.8 acres of rolling greens. 

Tiles from the Tile Fest

Katia McGuirk, driven by passion and grit, with 41 years of experience in the field, is at the helm. With an expansive holistic vision, McGuirk — a career tilemaker, educator,  entrepreneur, and amateur tile historian — has embraced the project and put together a strong team committed to amplifying the vision: ”Honor the Past to Inspire the Future.”  McGuirk says she is, ”Building bridges, not walls.” She is flanked by a strong, hard-working team:

  • Production and Site Manager, Jesse Pham (22 years TileWorks experience)
  • Director of Education and Events, Julianna Lange (6 years TileWorks experience)
  • Curator, Vance Koehler (20+ years TileWorks experience).

On the board — and no strangers to the tile world — are Barbara Sallick, (WaterWorks), Nawal Motawi (Motawi Tileworks), and Steve McBride (Pewabic Pottery), along with extraordinary lawyers, businessmen and community leaders. Together they are dedicated to keeping the site safe and relevant for the next 1000 years.

365 days of the year, The TileWorks is immersed in a narrative of curated collections and the collective lives of its teammates: curious, creative collaborators, who are making tile one by one in the spirit of the Arts and Crafts Movement and in the ethos of experimentation and innovation of founder Henry Chapman Mercer.  That outreach has expanded from primarily walk-in tours on-site — as was the norm — to tours that can be booked online, as well as a small collection of our tile that can be purchased online and shipped around the world. 

For the love of tile, The TileWorks is inviting the entire community: artisans, makers, collectors, historians, architects, designers, homeowners, and future tilemakers to its grounds to amplify its tile stories.

 Programming for the event is still growing. This will be a “Tile Throwdown” to be sure. This year marks bringing Tile Fest back as an annual event. Though this is The TileWorks’ freshman event, it is not new to the tile world, nor hosting events. Thousands of visitors are expected to walk through the gates.

Please spread the word to the ever-growing community of makers in your neighborhood and help this big tile hug to embrace each other and our diverse and inclusive clay bodies. The synergy from the simple pleasure of “gathering” again will be welcome for many who have been isolated making ceramic tiles in their studios, and soon will be a reality on the grounds of the Moravian Pottery and TileWorks.

You can follow The TileWorks from your armchair on FaceBook and Instagram, YouTube, and Etsy. Use #tilefest22 to promote the event. Send inquiries to [email protected] with “TileFest 22” as the subject line. 

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