Gallery and Community Living Room
Gallery - Artisan Wares - Creative Co-working - Intimate Events - Workshops

“This Room is for Living” A cultural Greenhouse Overall installation statement “This Room is For living" opens the Magija Gallery up as a space for growing culture, together. A seedling idea watered during the gallery’s Visionary-in-Residence Program, international Cultural Gardner, Kate Kirby, will be opening up her practice for public participation March 26 - April 4. Kirby’s life’s work approaches “culture” as the full set of conditions that shape human life — language, norms, roles, social architecture, access to resources, habits, relationships, the distribution of power, as well as the tangible. Culture determines what feels natural, what feels forbidden, who belongs, and what kinds of futures seem possible. Throughout history, culture has been used both to sustain communities and to control them, from the systematic erasure of Indigenous lifeways to the mechanisms that keep people isolated, exhausted, and disconnected from themselves, one another, and their natural habitat. “This Room is For Living” explores what emerges when we shape culture consciously, to create ways of being together that feel connected, healthy, and vibrant. This Work/Play-In-Progress is an invitation to step out of a dynamic of passive inheritors of culture, spectators, and critics, into collective authorship of that which emerges in the living room. Throughout the installation, the room becomes an active (and sometimes inactive!) environment shaped in real time through movement, conversation, ritual, ceremony, the body, rest, play, and who is in the room. Your engagement is self-determined, with options to witness or actively cultivate what is happening in the space. During open hours, the elements of culture become visible and changeable. From the way we greet each other, to the way we transition out of “work mode” with a wiggle and homemade instrument, and kiss the day goodnight with a co-written lullaby. The gallery becomes a place of cross-pollination, where we have the opportunity to share the fruits of our own cultures: breaking into a song inherited from a relative. Or a place to create our very own folk dance. Gathering, especially across cultures, can be stressful…we know there is a “right” way to behave, but we don’t always know what that is, or what will happen if we get it wrong. This installation is an invitation to show up as you are, without expectation that you know the “rules” (we haven’t created any yet!). Come confused, curious, awkward, uncomfortable, and know that you are in good company. Maybe we can create new rules that give us permission to just be ourselves. Maybe we plant new seeds that take root in our relationships, workplaces, communities, and institutions. Maybe we make the world a little more humane, a little kinder, a little more magical… Come culture garden with us! :) SCHEDULE From March 26 - to April 4, there will be many opportunities to experience this living installation. Visitors are welcome to drop-in to scope it out, or become seasoned cultural gardeners throughout the project’s run. It’s up to you! OPENING CEREMONY Thursday, March 26, 7:00–9:00 PM Doors open at 6:30pm, and close at 7:15pm when the program begins Free public event “…wait, what…?” You may be wondering what any of this actually looks like. Valid. This is the opening ceremony of a pilot installation. The details of which will emerge over time, by design. During the opening, you will get a better sense of the concept, and the people guiding the experience. You will also receive an orientation to what we’ll be creating together in the days to come. The way we gather will be an embodiment of the culture itself: circling up for storytelling, creating our own unique greeting, and closing the evening with an end-of-day ritual. OPEN LIVING ROOM March 27 - April 4 Free, open to public During open hours, the gallery opens up into an active (and sometimes inactive!) cultural greenhouse. It will be part creating, and part living what we create. Throughout the day and night, there will be work, rest, play, ritual, movement, ceremony, music, meditation, dance, making, culture salons, etc! Each day will look different depending on who is present and what emerges. You are welcome to stop in, observe, participate, or pick up a watering can and become a cultural gardner with us! You are also invited to donate materials that may become part of our material culture — fabric, craft supplies, objects that could become homemade instruments, etc. — as well as skills & ideas that could become fertilizer for what begins to grow. Open hours and happenings will be updated daily on Instagram: @magijacollective CLOSING CEREMONY Saturday, April 4, 7:00–9:30 PM Doors open at 6:30pm, and close at 7:15pm when the program begins *Ticketed Event A celebratory culmination of the installation, highlighting the practices, atmosphere, and cultural elements that have emerged. There will be live sound, dance, sights unseen, and pure joy as we revel in our culture bloom :) We will use our collective magic to send these seeds of inspiration out into the world, to take root where the soil is fertile… Open to everyone, seasoned cultural gardeners and first-timers alike! *All ticket sales go directly to the artist to help cover the cost of running this installation. There will be an optional opportunity to contribute further for those who wish to support the continuation of this work.