While the Atlanta Botanical Garden continues its major glow-in-the-dark art installation exhibition "Bruce Munro: Light in the Garden" through Oct. 3, its newly opened Gainesville satellite garden is planning its own first outdoor show.
Credit: hpousner
Credit: hpousner
The Atlanta Botanical Garden, Gainesville recently announced that it will present "Nature Connects: Art With Lego Bricks" from Sept. 19 to Jan. 3. The touring exhibit features 27 nature-themed sculptures — including a 6-foot-tall praying mantis and a swallowtail butterfly with a 5-foot wingspan — in 14 installations, crafted from more than 375,000 Lego bricks.
The Gainesville attraction is a woodland garden, a suitable setting for visitor discoveries such as a Lego duck and ducklings beside the pond, the praying mantis peeking out from a drift of Overlook Garden grasses and a super-sized hummingbird with a trumpet flower off the Promenade.
"Nature Connects" was created by New York-based Lego artist Sean Kenney for Reiman Gardens in Ames, Iowa.
Instead of Krazy Glue-like Kragle, as seen in "The Lego Movie," the largest sculptures are supported by an internal structure of steel rods and plates.
Opening day on Sept. 19 will feature a family festival with music and games, discovery stations and Lego-related activities. Lego crafts and activities will be offered throughout the fall.
Opened in May, the Gainesville attraction stretches across 168 acres, more than five times the size of the Midtown Atlanta garden. A compact five-acre garden and a 2,000-seat amphitheater are major features of its $21 million first phase.
Atlanta Botanical Garden, Gainesville is open 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays. $8 adults, $5 ages 3-12. 1911 Sweetbay Drive, Gainesville. 404-876-5859, atlantabg.org/visit/gainesville.
