TILEFEST 25: "STORIES IN CLAY"
MAY 17TH: 10am-5pm
MAY 18TH: 10am-4pm
Rain or shine
Doylestown, PA – For more than a century, the tiles made at The Moravian Pottery and Tile Works have told stories—about places, people, and craft traditions passed down through generations. On May 17-18, TileFest 2025 brings those stories to life with a two-day event featuring a marketplace of tilemakers from across the country, hands-on experiences, and a look at how clay connects past and present.
This year's theme, "Stories in Clay," highlights the way tiles capture social, political, and cultural life across humanity, throughout human history and today. Visitors will meet artists from Alaska to Florida, California to Maine, browse and purchase unique ceramic tiles, and experience the processes that bring clay to life.
TILEFEST 25 PROGRAM:
DIAL UP, artisans & tile enthusiasts alike, using our antique rotary phone. This year’s theme for TileFest, Stories in Clay, is an ongoing oral history project, TileWorks StoryCorps. Share your spoken stories, the how and why you have been shaped and formed in some way
by the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works. We see all TileFest participants as embodying this legacy, and an important part of this story. If
you are sharing from afar, please call 1-800-437-3009 and enter your invitation number 94483. Remote callers will be given 30 minutes to record a story, so if your story happens to be longer and you get cut off (that would be so cool), please pick up the phone and call again to finish.
JOIN THE CLAY CONVERSATION. Learn how our educational partnership with Penn State Abington came to be and how
the fully accredited college course, held partially on site at MPTW, teaches the historical tile techniques of Henry Mercer that are preserved and practiced today and give students a voice to convey their own personal stories (and earn college credits too).
TALK TO Jaclyn Fiola, Professor of Soil & Environmental Sciences and her team of scientists, our neighbors and cohorts from
Delaware Valley University, to discuss and play with clay and soil.
RIFF AND PONTIFICTATE with former apprentice, ceramic artist, poet, philosopher, and craftivist, Mike Medieros. Learn about his collaboration with MPTW that will culminate in a multimedia exhibit Wild Clay at the TileWorks at TileFest 26.
ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVES and get dirty at our pop up clay station. Make a tile at our 2nd annual Great Tile Throwdown. This activity
is accessible to all ages and skill levels. When you are done, leave your tile behind to be fired and displayed on our Tile Wall of Fame.
A guest juror will pick “best of show” and the winner will receive
a special prize. Visit last year’s winner Melissa Michael Art to ask her about her prize.
MEANDER AT YOUR OWN PACE through the TileWorks on a free tour to witness historic tilemaking in action and engage in conversations about the impact of our work today with our tile artisans who continue to make our heritage tiles. Also on the free tour is our Clay-Play station that offers a tactile experience, available to all, to shape our wild clay from Lake Towhee.
CHECK OUT the exhibition of our youngest tile artists, 5th graders from Sol Feinstone Elementary. Lead by Art Teacher Susanne Frey, the exhibit of over 100 tiles were inspired by Henry Mercer.
LEND A HAND and contribute to a community project with
TileWorks X The Travis Manion Foundation. Glaze some blue
stars that will become part of a pocket park in Doylestown called
Freedom Square.
GRAB A COLD BEVERAGE from our TileWorks Bar, kick back, and listen to home-grown and nationally acclaimed bluegrass band, Wood Flower, back for the second year. The sweet sounds add to the revelry and festive spirit of TileFest on Sunday for 1-4PM.
CHECK OUT THE ARTISTS AT WORK as they demonstrate live at TileFest 25. Ricky Boscarino will be using wire metal mesh and applied concrete to sculpt a full sized man in top coat and tails. He will spark your imagination and ignite your desire to visit his art environment at Luna Parc. Tile setters who graduated from the Artisans Revolution in Tile training program will be revving up their ring and tile saws to pair their precision setting skills and artistic vision to create shaped mosaics that elevate any tile installation or become stand alone pieces of art to hang on your wall. As for the Tile Geeks, their project and presence is a huge gift from them to us, an intentional yet spontaneous expression of their love for tile and TileWorks.
ENTER YOUR EMAIL at the ticketbooth for a chance to win the grand prize of a Mercer Mosaic. Other prizes include free tour tickets, a free Tileworks household membership, and two TileWorks t-shirts. $1 from every TileFest 25 ticket sold will be donated to CERF, the Craft Emergency Relief Fund, which will be allocated directly to the rebuilding of clay studios affected by the recent flooding in Asheville, NC from Hurricane Helene.
*Events and demonstrations are ongoing throughout both days unless otherwise stated.*
FOOD & DRINK:
AMSTERDAM COFFEE will offer fresh coffee and baked goods.
Food provided by PAZZO PIZZA, SMOKIN EARLS BBQ, JOES CRAFTED CRAVINGS, and COMFORT KITCHEN