**GIVEAWAY** The Franklin Institute: The Art of the Brick

I haven’t been to The Franklin Institute since I was chaperoning a field trip of my high school students!  Going with four children under 7 years old intimidated me.  BUT, with the feedback of friends and the help of my mother-in-law, we were so super excited to visit the museum.  What drew us in now, and not before?  The Art of the Brick exhibit, of course!

  THE ART OF THE BRICK, traveled around the world and has found its temporary home at The Franklin Institute. The exhibit opened on February 7th to great acclaim. Truly a one of a kind experience, this is something you will not want to miss. THE ART OF THE BRICK runs through September 6, 2015:

Named one of CNN’s Top Ten “Global Must-See Exhibitions,’ THE ART OF THE BRICK exhibit by artist Nathan Sawaya takes LEGO® bricks from child’s toy to sophisticated art form and beyond. The world’s largest display of LEGO art ever features original pieces of intriguing and inspiring artworks as well as re-imagined versions of some of the world’s most famous art masterpieces made exclusively from one of the most recognizable toys in the world: the LEGO brick.

We arrived at the museum at about 9:45am.  Our tickets for the exhibit were for 10:00am.  I really appreciated how the tickets were timed, therefore ensuring you weren’t among a huge crowd and could actually enjoy and take in all that you were observing.  And looking at contemporary artist Nathan Sawaya’s work is worth the time!

After the exhibit we went to Sir Isaac’s Loft, then the Electricity Room, The Franklin Air Show (which was my 5 year olds favorite room)- here they learned to make a paper airplane!  After this room, we stayed on the second floor and visited the Giant Heart (probably the most memorable thing at FI).  We wanted to make paper in the Key Hall, but lunch was more important to my kiddos, ha, so we went and ate and then headed downstairs to the KidScience room.  This is great for children under 8 years old.  LOTS to do and play with!  Best of all, it’s totally gated so less likelihood of losing a cherub in this exhibit.

Sadly, due to nap constraints, we didn’t make it to the Train Factory room, however I’m sure they would have loved that.  We went to a few others too, but these were the most impacting to our crew today.  Before leaving though, we headed back toward the Lego exhibit and played with Legos for about 30 minutes.  So cathartic, great for the brain, and an all-age fun activity to do.  This time though, my children tried to make flip flops and a dog and a person just like Sawaya has done in his art show.  I love that they now see Legos with a whole new respect!
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VISITOR TIPS:

Pack a lunch!  Bring snacks and drinks.  They sell food, and at a pretty reasonable price considering it’s an attraction, but still nice when we can pack our own.

There are bathrooms all over the place, which is great, and they are were clean!

If bringing a stroller, bring as compact of one as possible.  It’s an amazing place to take groups, so that means a large stroller really has no room to navigate.

Parking in the garage is $15 for a 1-5 hour visit.  If you can, bring quarters and find metered street parking.  If you go to the garage, note which floor.  Learned that the hard way today, ha ha!

Allow for 4 hours, at least, if you really want to check it all out.

Don’t forget to take your obligatory photo with the Ben Franklin monument in the center foyer!

 

 

Disclaimer:  In exchange for this honest review, The Franklin Institute has provided my family with tickets to enjoy the experience, as well a 4-ticket package for Delaware County Moms.com to give away to one lucky reader!