Highwood’s AGI Mosaics putting it all together with expansion of studio, programs

What began as a longtime dream for Ahmed Ibrahim has quickly grown into a thriving creative hub.

AGI Mosaics, which opened in 2025 in Highwood, celebrated the expansion of its studio on Wednesday, July 8, adding 900 square feet and launching new programs, such as workshops, classes, summer camps and a gallery, that reflect the studio’s continued growth.

“This studio has been a dream of mine for two decades,” Ibrahim said. “This expansion is the beginning of our growth.”

The studio offers mosaics for purchase, studio time, items at a student shop, classes and workshops. Workshops range from three hours to three sessions depending on technique.

The expansion, Ibrahim said, allows students to have more space to gather, do group work and participate in a seasonal gallery, which motivates them to exhibit their work there.

Additional programming, as of July 8, includes child summer camps, like mixed media, painting, drawing and different material mosaics (so children under 11 are not working with glass pieces).

A new jewelry class is also now offered, allowing people to create a ring from a precious metal like gold or silver, and so is a workshop taught by an international artist.

Ibrahim is working on adding projectors, seminars and art talks that will help artists “develop their style and experience,” Ibrahim said, to fill the space.

Founder

Ibrahim has a background in mural art and has been doing mosaics since 2000.

Growing up in Egypt, he was surrounded by Roman mosaics and “fell in love with [mosaics]” quickly.

He found it difficult to make a living as an independent artist and was considering teaching. After immigrating to Chicago in 2010, he taught at Chicago Mosaic School and Hyde Park Arts Center.

Then he opened his Highwood studio in January 2025, creating this “community” that helps people “find themselves” and “release stress” in their daily lives, Ibrahim said. Sometimes he said he feels more like a therapist than an artist.

“I love to see the look in my student’s eyes when they discover something new, or how they get attached to art and find a release of stress from it,” Ibrahim said.

His students recognize his passion in the studio.

Student Lillian Tarnow notices that when Ibrahim talks about mosaics he “lights up,” she said.

“He can be the most miserable, dead, tired dog out on the rug, but if someone wants to start a project he’s right there… glowing,” Tarnow said.

Ibrahim feels “challenged” at work as his customers are always asking for new projects. One of his favorite projects, requested by a client, was of three monsters “eating each other” that he turned into a mosaic sculpture.

His favorite personal project is a mosaic called “Happiness,” which he created in 2012.

In the studio

Comfortable in his studio, students like to fill up the fridge with cookies, cakes and drinks. One student even created aprons for the studio, free of charge.

Ibrahim has built a tight-knit community in the studio, which inspires him to come to work every day.

“If I’m proud of something in this life, it’s what’s around me right now,” he said. “It’s really small, but it will grow, and one day, it will be the center for, I don’t know, the whole world.”

The max number of people in a class is eight people and the age range of his students are 40 to 93 years old.

Mosaics

The most popular types of mosaics among Ibrahim’s customer base are natural stone and smalti, used during the Byzantine and Roman times.

Mosaic art is “expressive,” Ibrahim said. It requires individuals to touch each piece as it is placed.

As some pieces take up to 300 hours to create, mosaics get people “more connected” than other art forms, he said.

Tarnow comes from a pottery background and has been doing mosaics for a decade. She finds creating mosaics makes her “calm” and gives her “patience.”

Ibrahim thinks mosaic work will be necessary in the future.

“We need people to use their hands more,” he said. “We start relying on AI and a lot of things, but it’s time to create something.”

In the future, Ibrahim would love to continue to grow his studio to include ceramics and sculptures, and maybe open an art school and host an art walk.

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