The Art of Bricks: LEGO Exhibit

 My husband grew up with LEGOs, and now our children play with them daily. When we learned of The Art of Bricks LEGO exhibition coming to Philadelphia, we planned to take the family into the city to the Franklin Institute. We went this past weekend.
(A note: I do occasionally accept sponsored posts, but we paid for all of this ourselves. It's just something I wanted to share and recommend. All opinions and photos are my own.)

We thoroughly enjoyed it and certainly recommend it for LEGO fans. Unfortunately, it is rather pricey, but you really can spend a full day at the Franklin Institute having fun learning about science.

Upon arrival, we went straight to the LEGO exhibit. After waiting for just a few minutes, we were ushered in to watch a short video featuring the artist Nathan Sawaya. Personally, I would have enjoyed learning more about him and his work, but it was probably the perfect length for the age variety in the audience. When it was over we entered the exhibit.


Right away Big Sister, age 8, recognized her friend, Mona Lisa. Squint at her and you'll be amazed at the clarity. She recognized other famous paintings-turned-brick like The Scream, too. All of the children recognized Starry Night thanks to a floor puzzle (affiliate link) we have. 
 The statues were rather impressive, too. Here's David.
Some paintings became three-dimensional like American Gothic.
 Mr. Sawaya also created original artwork. This T-rex took a summer to build.
 I rather like this image. Using just three colors, we still see plenty of detail in her face.
Being in Philadelphia, it was quite nice to see the fixed Liberty Bell.
I appreciated how each piece explained the inspiration (with a photo, if appropriate) and the scale. (He used 1:1 scale.) It also stated the number of bricks used and often how long it took to create the art.

One of my favorite exhibits was The Swimmer. You can see it at the museum's website since I didn't actually take a photo of it. (Maybe I was in awe? I'm not sure.)

Did I enjoy it? Did the family? YES! Even though it was expensive, we all enjoyed it.

The ticket price includes not only the LEGO exhibit but also admission to the Franklin Institute. We likely made it through The Art of the Brick in less than 90 minutes. (I didn't time it; it's a guess.) We spent hours exploring the rest of the Franklin Institute. The LEGO exhibit will leave Philadelphia next month. We're grateful we were able to experience it.

I would suggest if you must go to the Franklin Institute and/or The Art of the Brick on a weekend, go at the earliest time available.  We left our home about 8 a.m. By the time we parked and walked a few blocks to the museum, it was after 9:30. The crowds had not arrived yet. By 11 o'clock it was busy! It wasn't awful, but it was certainly busy.

We survived skipping lunch by having bananas in the car prior to arrival and granola bars at lunch time. Though they have a cafe at the museum, we opted to hold off so we could go to a restaurant later. We didn't leave until about 2:30. The great thing about eating lunch so late is that we didn't bring home any leftovers. We also had ice cream for "dinner" upon arrival home.

We actually recognized a piece of LEGO art from the book Beautiful LEGO. It's a book family members enjoy looking through on occasion.

If you haven't introduced your child to LEGOs yet, I highly recommend them (in case that isn't obvious). We learned how LEGOs introduce responsibility to children.

I've also made a personalized LEGO tray as a gift. I discussed some other LEGO gift ideas, too. In one post, I also discussed LEGO storage. My husband and children all enjoy our LEGO books.

Do you like LEGOs? If not, would you consider seeing a LEGO exhibit like this one?

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through an affiliate link, I earn a small percentage at no cost to you. Thank you!
~ Annette
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2 comments

  1. That sounds like so much fun!!! Glad you all got to go. Sounds like it's worth every penny.

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