The San Antonio Botanical Garden is about to open a new series of displays that take a pretty unusual tack.
They've taken a common toy and repurposed it into a fun way of teaching children about nature.
“We’ll have a exhibit called Nature Connects. It’s art with Lego bricks," said Botanical Garden Executive Director Bob Brackman. And yes, he said Lego bricks.
“There’s over half a million Lego bricks making 27 art pieces throughout the Botanical Garden,” he explained.
Those 27 pieces run from six inches to nearly 8 ft. tall. And as he details them, there are some pretty funny ones.
“There is a huge, larger-than-life trumpet flower with a hummingbird coming out of it that collectively, they’re about six or seven feet tall. There’s a six-foot-tall rose. There are a series of lily pads and jumping koi fish that’ll be in the conservatory pond," he said. "There’ll be a gold finch feeder and some gold finches in the old fashioned garden. A big butterfly, a big bumble bee. There’s a life-sized gardener. And there’s also a lawn mower.”
A life-sized lawn mower. All those and one that he thinks will probably be the most popular.
“There’s a bison, and a calf,” he said.
That buffalo took more than 45,000 Legos to build, and is the single largest piece. But as Brackman said, there’s also something parents might want to try on for size.
“We actually now even have some hammocks,” Brackman said... "We built some structures to hold five hammocks and they’ve been enjoyed all summer long and will continue to be a permanent addition for our guests.”
The Lego sculptures are placed throughout the park’s 38 acres to encourage families to experience as much of what the center has to offer as is possible.
"We think this exhibit will be a blockbuster and we look forward to it opening up on Saturday," Brackman said.
- For more on the exhibit visit: www.sabot.org
