Art of Brick: Field Trip

There's just something about Legos...am I right? I haven't met a kid who didn't love them and my girls are no exception. They build according to the models and only rarely branched out to make their own creations...until today! We had the chance to visit the free exhibit The Art of Brick, hosted by the Alamance County Arts Council.

The Arts Council is housed in a house preserved for its history. It may not look like a museum from the outside, but once step into its doors and you are immediately surrounded by art. Volunteers greeted us and made sure we knew not to touch or even accidentally bump into the exhibits. Although they are glued together, they were not glued to their stands and even jumping could dislodge them. We made sure the girls understood this rule, especially since we had just been visiting a much more hands-on museum prior to this!

Some of the sculptures were housed at the Children's Museum of Alamance County so we saw those first. The opened book with a castle and moat surrounding it was my favorite. A story-poem was written on the book and it was fun to share it with my girls. Grace said it looked like a pop-up book and I think she's right!

The crayons were another fun sculpture for the girls!

The boy looking at his reflection entranced Beth and Rose.

Many of the sculptures were of people. The genius of this artwork goes beyond the ability to create sculptures out of Legos. The creativity and ideas behind the art seem endless.

This one looked like someone was squeezing the clouds to make it rain on the city!

"Mommy, look! His heart is floating!"

Grace's face while she looks at this one is just fabulous! 

This is just so cool! Grace loved this one and spent a long time looking at it and talking with me about it. Grace is almost 4 and here she is discussing art with me. Wow!

Hopefully this won't be the only time we see Mt. Rushmore, but even if it is, it's a pretty cool way! 

Beth and Grace enjoyed talking about this one and why it was titled Lonely Yellow. We chatted about why only one brick was yellow, what it represented, and why only light would be on in the city. 

Here is a self-portrait of the artist made entirely of Legos. How cool would family pictures like this be?

After we toured the exhibit we watched a short video of the artist talking about how he started out and why he made these sculptures. The girls were very entertained by him and I really enjoyed hearing about his past. What struck me most about what he said was how much it meant to him that families came to his exhibits. He said families who typically wouldn't go to an art exhibit would come to The Art of Brick. Boy was he right! The art museum really wasn't on my radar for a field trip until the girls were much older. I'm now reconsidering it. Talking with the girls about the sculptures, what they represented, and just discussing them was so much fun!

The girls were also inspired to come home and create on their own. Rose, my by-the-book girl, didn't once look at her instruction sheets for her Lego sets when she came home. I'm not sure if I've ever seen her do that! The Art of Brick was a fabulous exhibit and a really fun way to introduce art to your kids if you haven't yet! Check here to see if there is an exhibit near you!

Family Friendly: 10

Kids Engagement: 10

Likelihood to return: 10