The Watershed is An Open Book
2018-12-06 16:30 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | Mander Recreation Center, 2140 N. 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19121, United States
New Early Literacy Program for 3-8 Year Olds and Their Caregivers!

Weekly workshops with a seasonal theme to help build reading readiness using “teachable” moments in your own neighborhood.
Great incentives for frequent attendance, such as backpacks loaded with things to help your child read, explore, and play in the outdoors!
Partners: Mander Recreation Center, Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center, and Let’s Go Outdoors.
Supported by the William Penn Foundation
There is no fee, but pre-registration is required. Space is limited so sign up today!

The Watershed is An Open Book
2018-12-08 10:00 - 11:30 | Gideon Elementary School, 2817 W. Glenwood Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 19121, United States

The Watershed is An Open Book
2018-12-08 13:00 - 16:00 | Fairmount Water Works, 640 Water Works Drive, Philadelphia, PA, 19130, United States

Let It Snow!
2018-12-26 11:00 - 15:00, 2018-12-27 11:00 - 15:00, 2018-12-28 11:00 - 15:00 | Fairmount Water Works, 640 Water Works Drive, Philadelphia, PA, 19130, United States
It may not be snowing yet, but you can make your own little winter wonderland in a DIY snow globe this week at the Water Works -OR- learn how all the little fish get ready for the winter cold as you make a stuffed paper fish!

It's a S.T.E.A.M. Powered Day!
2019-01-18 09:00 - 15:00 | Fairmount Water Works, 640 Water Works Drive, Philadelphia, PA, 19130, United States

Class: Watercolors on the Water
2019-07-13 13:00 - 16:00, 2019-07-20 13:00 - 16:00, 2019-07-27 13:00 - 16:00, 2019-08-03 13:00 - 16:00, 2019-08-10 13:00 - 16:00 | Fairmount Water Works, 640 Water Works Drive, Philadelphia, PA, 19130, United States
Explore the beauty and versatility of watercolor at the historic Water Works space on the Schuylkill! Enjoy behind the scene natural spaces while learning a variety of watercolor approaches to painting beautiful waterscapes. Students will take inspiration from the river that continues to define the natural landscape of Philadelphia and will be encouraged to find their own personal means of expression through paint. Class will conclude with an exhibition of original works of art at the Water Works in Fall 2019. Beginners welcome!
Class meets at the Fairmount Water Works. Instructor: Alicia Mino
For more information contact: 215-391-4806/aking@pafa.org

Educator’s Workshop: The City & the River
2019-07-20 09:00 - 15:00 | Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
Held at the Pennsylvania Academy for Fine Arts and the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center. Lunch and transportation between sites is provided.
The workshop will introduce PAFA’s new special exhibition From the Schuylkill to the Hudson: Landscapes of the Early American Republic that delves into the important and underexplored tradition of landscape representation in Philadelphia from the Early American Republic to the Centennial Exhibition (1876), while FWW will engage teachers in lessons and provide resources related to the power of place. Educators will explore sample activities and essential questions to engage students with the important themes connecting visual art and technology, civic mindedness and the role of art in politics, environmental issues and history of landscape genre.
Cost: $15 // Free for Teachers with a PAFA Membership.
Participants receive 3 hours of Act 48 Credit /New Jersey PD Credit.

A Walk Along the Parkway
2019-08-03 14:00 - 15:30 | Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
Philadelphia’s Parkway references the most beautiful cities of Old Europe and this walking tour will help visitors discover the magnificent buildings along Philadelphia’s own Champs-Élysées and what lies beneath them. Begin the tour in the From Schuylkill to Hudson exhibition and learn about the infamous Walking Treaty on the way to Logan Square. Then embark on a mile-long stroll down the picturesque path to the Fairmount Water Works, where wheels once pumped the City’s drinking water. Ideal for history buffs, cultural connoisseurs and architectural mavens.
PLEASE NOTE: Comfortable shoes strongly encouraged for this walking tour. Transportation back to PAFA is provided.
This Walking Tour is made possible with the support of the Fairmount Water Works.

Points of View Speaker Series: City Water, City Life
2019-10-26 14:00 - 15:30 | PA
In City Water, City Life, historian and author Carl Smith explores the development of the first successful waterworks systems in Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago between the 1790s and the 1860s. Smith shows how the discussion, design, and use of waterworks reveal how Americans framed their conceptions of urban democracy and how they understood the natural and the built environment, individual health and the well-being of society, and the qualities of time and history. Smith is the Franklyn Bliss Snyder Professor of English & American Studies at Northwestern University.
Cost: $15 (free for PAFA members)

Engage With Your World: Find New in the Familiar
2020-09-16 19:00 - 20:00 | PA
During this two-part program we’ll search for the surprising and refreshing in familiar places, and the new and urgent in ourselves.
About this Event
This is a two-part virtual event, taking place on September 16 & 23 from 7pm – 8pm via Zoom.
These past months, it may seem that our personal worlds have grown smaller, or crowded, and our own lives nudged off course. In this one-hour program we’ll search for the surprising and refreshing in familiar places, and the new and urgent in ourselves.
Author Beth Kephart will lead an illustrated two-part ZOOM presentation and conversation on September 16th & 23rd from 7 pm to 8 pm based on her books—Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River, Cloud Hopper, and the upcoming Wife|Daughter|Self: a memoir in essays.
She will inspire us to listen to/look for/document the sound of the rain, the roles we play in our lives, and the passions that keep us alive, among other imaginative prompts.
The second part of the event will be for creative sharing with the group.
Photo: Beth Kephart

River Days 2021
2021-10-02 11:00 - 14:00 | The Discovery Center, 3401 Reservoir Drive, Philadelphia, PA, 19121, United States
Enjoy hands-on activities for families throughout the day, plus a live performance conducted by the Cultural Heritage Fund Group, comprised of citizens of the Nanticoke Lenni Lenape tribe and presented by the Lenapehoking~Watershed, a place for water, art and culture.
Lenape performance/presentation starts at 1pm!
Space is limited, so be sure to secure a space for you and your family today!
Note:
Hurricane Ida is the second storm in recent FWW history that’s caused flooding of this magnitude. We understand that climate change is responsible for the intense storms we’ve experienced.
Due to extreme flooding at the Interpretive Center, this event will be held at The Discovery Center (, Phila., PA 19121).

POOL Opening / World Water Day
2022-03-22 12:00 - 17:00 | Fairmount Water Works, 640 Water Works Drive, Philadelphia, PA, 19130, United States
POOL weaves together history, site-specific artwork, storytelling, scholarship and place-based learning.
The exhibit installations build on one another to illuminate a history of segregated swimming in America, and its connection to present-day drowning issues affecting Black communities.
Open Wednesdays – Fridays, 12pm – 5pm and Saturdays, 10am – 5pm.

POOL Exhibition
2022-03-23 - 2022-10-08 | Fairmount Water Works, 640 Water Works Drive, Philadelphia, PA, 19130, United States

RIPPLE EFFECT: Curator and Artists’ Tours
2022-05-28 11:00 - 11:30, 2022-05-28 12:30 - 13:00, 2022-06-11 11:00 - 11:30, 2022-06-11 12:30 - 13:00, 2022-06-25 11:00 - 11:30, 2022-06-25 12:30 - 13:00 | Fairmount Water Works, 640 Water Works Drive, Philadelphia, PA, 19130, United States
Personal guided tours of Ripple Effect: Ed Grusheski Memorial Exhibition featuring thirteen local artists. The artists careers span from emerging to seasoned and the show includes drawings, paintings, sculpture and b/w photography.

Ed Grusheski had a gentle yet persuasive positive manner that resulted in cultivating like minded friends, colleagues, and communities, inspiring them to become more actively concerned and committed to their personal use and care of land and water. Ed did this through promoting education of the history of our relationship of water and how the Fairmount Water Works came to be. The early 19th Century engineer Frederick Graff designed the Fairmount Water Works to more efficiently and safely supply Philadelphia’s water system infrastructure. Ed emphasized in his discussions and work why it is immensely important to preserve the history and legacy of the Fairmount Water Works and to assure its sustainable future.

Book Party & Exhibition Opening - "Inland: The Abandoned Canals of the Schuylkill Navigation"
2022-10-11 17:00 - 18:30 | Fairmount Water Works, 640 Water Works Drive, Philadelphia, PA, 19130, United States
Please join Sandy Sorlien and other contributors to celebrate the launch of Inland, a new book of photographs, maps, and essays about the historic Schuylkill Navigation system and its mostly-hidden ruins. Inland was published in hardcover by George F. Thompson Books, designed by Deborah Larkin in Philadelphia, and printed by Brilliant Graphics in Pennsylvania.

Main Point Books will be on site with books available for purchase ($45).

An exhibition of prints and maps from the book will be on view in the Media Gallery through January 8, 2023.

2023 World Water Day Program: United Nations of Rivers Walk
2023-03-17 12:00 - 17:00 | Fairmount Water Works, 640 Water Works Drive, Philadelphia, PA, 19130, United States
Facilitated by the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center, in partnership with TU Delft, PortCityFutures, Philadelphia Water Department, Global Philadelphia, and the Alliance for Watershed Education, along with Schuylkill Banks, Schuylkill River Development Corporation, and Delaware River Development Corporation
Friends and colleagues of all ages are invited to walk downstream along the Schuylkill River trail, starting at the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center. Along the way, participants will be recorded answering a series of questions about the river, to give voice to all living things and how much we depend on the river and the river depends on us.
Returning together is optional.
This River Walk is part of a global program to record voices throughout the world. Recordings will be compiled and shared at Spitzer School of Architecture on Sunday March 19th as a pre-UN Water Conference 2023 Event. All are welcome to attend. Concurrent walks will take place along the Delaware River and Pennypack Creek (with students from Baldi Middle School)
Schedule:

12pm – Gather at Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center
12:30pm – Start Schuylkill River Walk downstream.

Note:

Brown bag lunch. Philadelphia tap water provided.
The walk has no end time—weather and people dependent

Open invitation to friends and colleagues of all ages to walk downstream along the Schuylkill River.

2023 World Water Day Program: Water, Heritage Sites & Sustainability
2023-03-18 10:00 - 17:00 | Fairmount Water Works, 640 Water Works Drive, Philadelphia, PA, 19130, United States
DAY 2: WATER, HERITAGE SITES & SUSTAINABILITY (SATURDAY, MARCH 18 from 10am – 5pm)
Facilitated by the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center, In partnership with TU Delft, PortCityFutures, Philadelphia Water Department, Global Philadelphia, and the Alliance for Watershed Education.
A full day program open to everyone about water as a lead up to the UN Water Conference 2023 in NYC March 22-24th, a mid-term review of the objectives of “Water for Sustainable Development (2018-2028) hosted by Tajikistan and the Netherlands.
A Delegation from the Netherlands will gather with Philadelphians at the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center to affirm the central role water plays in sustainable development.
Program highlights include: speakers, lunch, guided tours of the Water Works, viewing of the award-winning “POOL: A Social History of Segregation”, and a closing preview of our latest exhibit “Inland: The Abandoned Canals of the Schuylkill Navigation” with Sandy Sorlien. Join us for informal conversations and serious game playing that will celebrate water, public engagement, place-based education and the conservation of historic and cultural sites associated with water.

Brass in the Grass
2023-04-15 13:00 - 16:00 | Fairmount Water Works, 640 Water Works Drive, Philadelphia, PA, 19130, United States
Join the Fairmount Park Conservancy and the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center for “Brass in the Grass”, a special performance in honor of Jazz Appreciation Month.
Limited seating will be provided so we encourage you to bring your own lawn chair or picnic blanket and bring your own food and refreshments.
Performances from 1–2 pm and 3–4 pm.
Advanced RSVP is appreciated.
Full details and registration here.

High Water: An Informal History of Flooding in Philadelphia
2023-04-18 19:00 - 20:30 | Venice Island Performing Arts & Recreation Center, 7 Lock Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19127, United States
When a city is built along a river—and Philadelphia is wedged between two, the Schuylkill and the Delaware—floods are an inevitable occurrence, with sometimes tragic consequences. In this illustrated talk, environmental historian Adam Levine will talk about some of the worst floods ever to hit Philadelphia, beginning in the early 1800s and ending up with Hurricane Ida in 2021. He will also discuss the causes of different types of flooding that occur in urban areas, and what we can do to help mitigate future floods.
Levine has been delving into the history of Philadelphia’s rivers, streams, and water supply and drainage systems since 1998, as a consultant to the Philadelphia Water Department and as webmaster of waterhistoryPHL.org. His talks are always illuminating, and this one will include rarely-seen pictures, maps, and stories that he has uncovered in his years 25 years of research.
Adam Levine’s presentation kicks off SUBMERGED: A Changing Global Climate a special exhibition theme centered on flooding and Global Climate Change. The exhibition is directed by Karen Young for the Fairmount Water Works and curated by Thom Duffy. The exhibition’s purpose is to bring focus to historic and current extreme weather events impacting our region and the Planet’s struggle for survival. The show opens on EARTH DAY, Saturday, April 22 and closes July 29.
