The Art of the Brick: I went to ‘the most famous LEGO exhibition in the world’ - but was it worth the money?
Over 70 sculptures made entirely of LEGO are on display in Yorkshire as part of this globally renowned Art of the Brick exhibition.
With tickets costing from £10.90 per child and from £13.90 per adult, we sent our reporter Sophie Mei Lan to see if it’s worth the price tag.
Perhaps I have been spoiled for choice when it comes to viewing LEGO sculptures.
I have visited many toy stores all featuring LEGO masterpieces that I would only ever have nightmares about attempting to build.
Plus each year Sheffield BID hosts a free Bricktropolis LEGO trail throughout the city centre.
Granted, no trip to a toy store or to Sheffield city centre ends up being free once I’ve viewed and the kids have played with the LEGO because I always end up shopping - but at least the LEGO activity was free.
Nonetheless, the powerful marketing machine behind this LEGO exhibition - by acclaimed artist Nathan Sawaya - has built up the global hype boasting ten million visitors worldwide.
The Art of the Brick has even been hailed by CNN as one of the “top 10 most unmissable exhibitions.”
My first hurdle was finding it.
Fever, the events company behind the exhibition, has rented out Broad Gate - an office and retail space next to Argos on The Headrow. Nobody seemed to know where it was as it’s not signposted other than on the windows.
In tandem with The Art of the Brick, Fever are also hosting a Titanic VR event.
Having already bought our tickets we scanned our QR code and made our way up the escalator.
It was a bit challenging to navigate such a large empty space even to find the way up to the exhibition.
The sculptures are lit by spotlights with no clear navigation around the exhibition.
It was amazing to see endangered animals created out of LEGO bricks with the ‘brick count’ labelled next to each sculpture.
I thought it was a great way to showcase the level of detail used to create such objects.
Throughout the exhibition of over 70 sculptures, Sawaya has used more than one million LEGO bricks.
Other than the ‘brick count’ of each sculpture which was interesting although hard to read in the dark, there wasn’t much other signage.
I did enjoy a wander around the sculptures and spotting what artwork or species the LEGO was imitating. I was disappointed however at how small the exhibition was.
Within 15 minutes, including a stop to watch a film about the artist’s inspiration to ‘just start with one brick,’ we were done.
The kids however were relieved as the exhibition felt like an upmarket contemporary art gallery - it didn’t have the colour and excitement we’d had hoped.
At the end of the exhibition there is a LEGO brick pit and a pop-up LEGO shop.
The kids enjoyed the LEGO pit and building their own mini LEGO masterpieces. There were also some large Duplo bricks for the little ones to climb on.
My toddler daughter happily played in the pit but before I could stop her, I then saw her grab a young woman’s tray of LEGO, and pour it back into the pit.
The young woman had clearly been carefully selecting specific LEGO bricks to build something with her friend.
I saw the look of horror on her face as my daughter, giggling, tipped away her hard work back into the pit.
It made me realise that this is the main issue with the entire exhibition. It’s unclear who it is for.
The dimly-lit minimalist gallery space suggests the exhibition is aimed at adults. There’s barely any signage, little guidance, interaction, colour nor imagination in its set up, other than the incredible art itself.
But the mini pop-up shop and brick pit felt more geared for children.
I know people may say that the two experiences make it family-friendly, and it certainly is accessible in terms of the space to move around, but the whole vibe of it just felt confusing.
There wasn’t enough to satisfy art lovers nor children alone.
I think you need to be a LEGO superfan for this experience to feel value for money.
I left empty handed, relieved the kids weren’t inspired enough to beg for a LEGO kit from the overly priced shop, but disappointed you didn’t get at least a few bricks to take home.