The Art of the Brick at California Science Center!

We recently visited the California Science Center to explore their newest exhibit, The Art of the Brick, the world’s largest display of LEGO® – open now until September 7, 2020. The exhibit features over one million LEGO bricks transformed into more than 100 original and recreated works of art by artist Nathan Sawaya.

The artist created re-imagined versions of some of the world’s most famous art pieces through the medium of LEGO bricks, which is genius. This is the coolest way to engage our children in art education. It was such a treat to see our kids truly enjoying some of our favorites including Van Gogh’s Starry Night, Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring and many more. The colors, lighting, and illusions created throughout the exhibit are aesthetically pleasing and make for great pictures.

My kids loved the artist’s original piece, a sculpture of a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton made from over 80,000 LEGO bricks. They were amazed at how many LEGO bricks each art piece was made out of. They played a guessing game to try and guess how many LEGO bricks each art piece consisted of. This was a great way to fight the temptation of touching the art. The sculptures seemed so magical and unreal that I must admit, even I was tempted to touch it.

One of my favorite details of the exhibit was that every art piece has a description in both English and Spanish. We took my mom with us and it made a world of difference that she was able to read and understand the art just as much as we did. It was a great learning experience for us all.

The Science of the Brick gallery is the ideal ending where we were able to interact and play with LEGO bricks. It features nine activity stations with building challenges and ample seating for parents to patiently wait for our kids while they engage in learning through play.

Activities include:

* Art & Architecture: Recreate famous building, bridges and structures using LEGO bricks.

* Hidden Hands: Build a mystery object inside a covered box using only your sense of touch.

* Assistive Devices: Design a tool that will allow you to pick up an object on a post through a series of various sized windows.

*Describe It: Build a simple object out of view and describe the object to your friend. Then, see if your friend can build the same object-based only on the description.

* Six Bricks: Find out how many different things you can build using only six LEGO Duplo bricks.

* LEGO Drag Race: Build a LEGO brick car and test it out on ramps of different inclines.

* Free Play: Use your imagination in the free play area to make and create with bins of LEGO bricks and LEGO Duplo bricks.

California Science Center’s permanent exhibit galleries are free, but The Art of the Brick requires a separate ticket purchase. The exhibit is located on the 3rd floor and there's an escalator and elevator directly in front of it for easy access. I recommend you purchase tickets in advance online. ~ Lorena Alvarez

For more information, visit californiasciencecenter.org.