A few weekends ago our little family and friends went into the city to check out a fun exhibit we had heard about since it recently started at The Franklin Institute called The Art of the Brick. We wondered how enchanted our little girls would be with this exhibit being so young. They like Legos at home and even more now since they love stacking and building towers, cakes and designs of their own.
We decided to not to take a stroller into the exhibit telling our girls that this was a strictly no-hands, no-touching experience. Before we started we let them play in Ben’s Brick House that allows kids to build and play before and / or after going through the exhibit. I think this helped the girls have a little fun before going into a no touching territory.
As we started the exhibit we learned that since it was so popular that the tickets were being sold on a timed basis, so we waited in line about 5-10 minutes before staff allowed us in. What surprised me was the fact that we were not allowed to immediately start the visit. Instead, we were roped off to an area with a large screen. It was in this area that we learned a little more about the artist, Nathan Sawaya, who used to be a corporate lawyer before pursuing his passion as a full-time artist.
While I enjoyed learning a little about the artist, it was a little annoying waiting twice to start the exhibit with little ones. While our girls did well, they WERE antsy but other kids were screaming and shrieking, with frustrated parents. Even though the video was a few minutes, it felt like an eternity. I also learned that the concept was very much like waiting for rides at Disneyworld. We thought that while our girls did well obeying and checking out the exhibit I think this special exhibit should be for kids and older.
We also vowed we would NEVER go on a weekend. It was SO crowded that I felt like I was going to scream and explode BUT I am claustrophobic. It was hard to take photos without people standing in front of the art. If you want to learn about how many Legos were used for each piece and to even know a little story for each work DON’T GO WITH LITTLE KIDS! It is impossible. The only possible thing for me to do was to take photos of the works of art and of my kids observing.
While I should have said all of the above at the end, I DID enjoy what I saw. I was in awe of Mr. Sawaya’s talent and passion. I wanted to stand and stare at each work for at least 5 minutes. It was so amazing to see and imagine the time spent creating his own masterpieces as well as his own interpretations of historical works of art like Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
Here are a few works that I loved:
I really think this exhibit is unique and amazing despite my frustrated experience but that is only because we went during a weekend WITH kids. Our girls looked at all the works with us and even experienced some of the interactive pieces available for the public. They even asked why the artist like playing with Legos. It was cute and it was wonderful seeing what their little minds processed.
The exhibit is available until September 2015.
Thanks to Visit Philly for providing the VIP pass for our family to attend.
