Lego sculptures open at Reiman Gardens

Katelynn Mccollough

As part of the 2012 “Assembly Required” theme at Reiman Gardens, the show “Nature Connects” — featuring 27 Lego structures — has officially opened.

The display opened Saturday and will continue to run until Oct. 28.

Sean Kenney, the sculptor, created the different pieces with nearly 500,000 Legos. Each sculpture is related in some way to gardens and nature and range from 6 inches tall to nearly 8 feet.

Kenney was available to talk with the public Saturday and Sunday and also signed copies of his book, “Cool Cars and Trucks,” a guide to helping children begin to build with Legos. His website describes him as a “professional kid” who uses Legos to build almost anything.

Kenney has been creating these types of sculptures for nearly 30 years and is based from his institution in New York.

According to the Reiman Gardens website, “As you discover each display, learn how nature is interconnected just like the nearly 500,000 Lego bricks used to build these amazing larger than life sculptures.”

The bison sculpture is made of from 45,143 Lego bricks. Other sculptures include a butterfly, rose, hummingbird and flower, a rabbit and even a lawn mower.

According to Kenney’s website, he has more than 1.5 million Lego pieces, and the largest sculpture he has ever built was a polar bear that used 95,000 Lego pieces.

The exhibit can be seen each day from 9 a.m until 4:30 p.m. Admission is free for all students with their ID cards.