Botanica’s gardens pop with Lego sculptures this summer

Giant-sized Lego sculptures are returning to Botanica in Wichita for the summer.

More than 40 sculptures and murals made from more than 800,000 Lego pieces were installed this week around the 20-acre gardens and inside its visitor center. Created by New York-based artist and certified Lego professional Sean Kenney, the traveling “Nature Pop!” exhibit opens Saturday, May 18, and will run through Sunday, Sept. 22.

It’s the second time Botanica has shown one of Kenney’s Lego exhibitions. Kenney’s “Nature Connects” exhibition, which featured about 15 Lego sculptures, was at Botanica in the summer of 2019. It was the first time Botanica had booked a traveling exhibition; touring installations have become something of a summer tradition ever since.

“‘Nature Connects’ was such a success, and our team just really loves the concept of these animals created in vibrant colors, popping out of nature, and the idea behind it —that everything in nature is interconnected in a similar way that Lego bricks are interconnected,” said Nikki Smith, Botanica’s director of community engagement and education.

This past Monday morning, the sculptures — transferred in individual art crates aboard two semi-trailers — were unloaded, unboxed and inspected, ready to be installed throughout Botanica by its events and exhibit team, with the help of two staff members from Imagine Exhibitions, the company that provides these types of traveling displays. None of the Legos used in the sculptures and murals have been bonded or glued in place, although a few sculptures have some metal rods for structural stability.

Even Smith was impressed once she saw the sculptures.

“I was not expecting to be wowed since I have a high wow threshold, and I was impressed to see them come off the truck.”

Wherever possible, “We have placed the sculptures in places where you would find them naturally,” Smith said.

A doe and her fawn, striped in festive colors, can be found near a tree in a thicket. A fox is positioned as if hunting a group of rabbits near Botanica’s stream, while the sculptures of two gardeners, created with yellow bricks, appear to be planting and watering in the wildflower garden. A butterfly mural made of Legos is found in — you guessed it — the gardens’ Butterfly House.

Sculptures of other animals, like the blue-variegated polar bears, a dodo bird, a bubble-gum-pink-colored dog and a penguin, will pop up elsewhere.

While Botanica, which MidwestLiving magazine lists as one of the region’s top three botanical gardens, is always colorful in the summer, the exhibition provides an added experience, Smith said.

“It’s just different to experience (art) in nature,” she said.

Three of the exhibition’s murals will be in the visitor center, where two other Kenney-created murals, specific to Wichita and purchased by Botanica when his 2019 exhibit was in town, will be displayed.

Visitors can do some art as well, through interactive stations. A building station with mega-sized Legos is on the patio next to Troll Hill, where the dodo bird and penguin Lego sculptures are displayed, and a Duplo building block station can be found at the carousel. A coloring station with exhibition-inspired notecards is in the Garden Café. Other activities include a scavenger hunt.

The exhibition is included with general admission, which is $10 for ages 13 and older; $8 for ages 3-12 and 65 and older, and veterans; free for children 2 and younger and Botanica members.

Botanica participates in the Sunflower Summer program, which provides one free visit to registered Kansas families with kids ages pre-K to seniors (sunflowersummer.org); the Blue Star Museum program, which provides free admission to active duty military and their families; and the Museums for All program, with a $3 per person admission for families receiving food assistance and showing ID and their SNAP card. Some area libraries also have family passes that may be checked out.

“Nature Pop!” is one of two Kenney-created Lego traveling exhibitions that can be seen in Kansas this summer. The “Animal Super Powers” exhibit is open now at the Topeka Zoo, another Sunflower Summer participating attraction, through Sept. 9.

‘Nature Pop!’ exhibition at Botanica

What: A Sean Kenney traveling exhibition of more than 40 sculptures and murals made from more than 800,000 Lego bricks

Where: Botanica, 701 Amidon

When: Saturday, May 18 through Sunday, Sept. 22. Botanica hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays, Wednesday, Fridays & Saturdays, 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesdays & Thursdays, and 1-5 p.m. Sundays. Closed for major holidays.

Admission: $10 for ages 13 and older; $8 for ages 3-12 and 65 and older, and veterans; free for children 2 and younger and Botanica members.

Budget tip: Botanica participates in the Sunflower Summer program, which provides one free visit to registered Kansas families with kids ages pre-K to seniors (sunflowersummer.org); the Blue Star Museum program, which provides free admission to active duty military and their families; and the Museums for All program, with a $3 per person admission for families receiving food assistance and showing ID and their SNAP card. Some area libraries also have family passes that may be checked out.

More info: 316-264-0448 or botanica.org