‘It’s All About that Brick’ challenge underway

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SIDNEY — Gateway Arts Council is bringing back its Lego Design Challenge and Exhibit, “It’s All About That Brick.” This event is both a design display that promotes the creative and imaginative use of LEGO bricks and an exhibit featuring the remarkable LEGO creations of the Central Ohio Lego Users Group.

“We wanted to have an event in our gallery that would be fun and appealing to the entire family, especially the kids. Legos just seemed to fit that bill,” said Gateway Arts Council’s Executive Director Ellen Keyes. “LEGO creations will not only be on display at the Gateway Arts Council, they will be on display in Ron & Nita’s window.

The first part of the event is an exhibit provided by the Central Ohio Lego Users Group. The Club (Ohio LUG) is a group of adults that have (re)discovered the joy of building creations out of the popular LEGO brand building blocks. The members of Ohio LUG come together at display opportunities, and combine their individual LEGO creations into an integrated LEGO experience. These displays feature running trains, little people, medieval castles, skyscrapers, and many more designs both big and small, all made of LEGO bricks.

The concept of their shows is very similar to the concept of model railroading, except that every single element in the layout is an original LEGO product. This includes not only buildings, but also the track, train parts, and motors. Unlike model railroading, quite a few of its members do not have a primary interest in just trains. Several members focus on other LEGO creations to supplement the layouts, and have built 5 foot tall skyscrapers, all sorts of automobiles, and even spaceships.

Ohio LUG was founded on Feb. 9, 2003, by five adult fans of LEGO (AFOL). The non-profit club participates and organizes displays of creations made of the popular LEGO® brand building bricks. Currently, the club has around 20 adult members.

Although the majority of the members reside in the greater Columbus area, the club serves the entire state of Ohio with some current members residing in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Dayton. For each show, the clubs’ members plan a layout of the creations and the individual members who own the various creations come together to set-up the displays.

Ohio LUG’s colorful layouts have been shown throughout the state of Ohio and well beyond. Over the course of the last year, the club has displayed eleven layouts varying in size from 90 to over 600 square feet. Most of the displays were done as part of train shows, but displays have also been held at a shopping mall, the Cleveland Science Center, COSI Toledo and as far away as Belleville, IL and Washington D.C. Through these shows, Ohio LUG has become known for its relatively large and unique LEGO creations, quite a few of their buildings exceed 5 feet, and took as many as 150 hours to build. The creations by the club members vary from boats to chickens and from spaceships to forests. A single creation can consist of only a handful of individual pieces to as many as 100,000 bricks. Some of the creations are scaled replicas of existing buildings, while other models are purely fantasy-based. Examples of scaled model replicas range from old steam trains to Columbus skyscrapers such as the LeVeque Tower and the Huntington Banks building that are built in 1:100 scale.

The second part of this wonderful event is a Lego Bring A Build that kids of all ages can participate in. Anyone is eligible to participate in the 2018 “It’s All About That Brick” LEGO Bring A Build. Use your own LEGO pieces to create and display one of your own constructions or your favorite Lego kit in a fun filled exhibition. Pieces will be displayed in the Gateway Arts Council’s Gallery. Prizes will be awarded based on age groups.

Participants just have to bring their Lego brick construction to Gateway Arts Council before June 7 to participate in Gateway Arts Council’s “It’s All About That Brick”, Lego Design Exhibit. For information call by phone at 937-498-2787. Contesants should make sure the creations are sturdy and are labeled. Creations should be delivered to Gateway Arts Council starting June 1. The creations should be at the Arts Council before June 7. They will stay on displace until June 29.

The exhibit will open to the public with a free reception from 6 to 8 p.m., June 7. Regular hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Evenings and weekends are by appointment.

For information about the contest or the exhibit, call 937-498-2787.

The Spot Restaurant was one of the businesses designed with LEGOs during a previous LEGO display.
https://www.sidneydailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/47/2019/05/web1_lego165.jpgThe Spot Restaurant was one of the businesses designed with LEGOs during a previous LEGO display.

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