Looking for a beat-the-heat afternoon activity this summer? How about a visit to the Toothpick World exhibit at the Morris Museum?
I try to pay attention to the emails from the Morris Museum, and what exhibits they have coming up, because they never fail to have something that catches my attention.
A few weeks ago, when Madeline had some friends over, we found ourselves with a free afternoon. The Toothpick World exhibit had just opened up at the Museum, and a visit there made for a fun afternoon.
The creations in this exhibit are all the brainchild of Stan Munro and were inspired by a project his art teacher brought in when he was in the fifth grade. Now some thirty years later, his exhibits tour the country, and is how he has supported himself for the past ten years. There are many familiar historical structures in the exhibit, and his Dubai piece has earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records, and his work is also featured in the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum in Baltimore.
Each piece uses only two things: toothpicks and glue – not to mention an incredible amount of patience and talent! As we wandered around to see the different structures, each one was more amazing than the previous one, but I think my favorite was the Yankee Stadium replica, just for the immense attention to detail alone.
Meanwhile the kids’ favorite was the Eiffel Tower, simply for the shear height of it.
The exhibit will be at the Museum until August 31st, and there are 24 pieces in the collection to see. Admission to the museum is $10 for adults, and $7 for children and students, and if you visit on the second or third Thursday of the month, you can “pay as you wish.” There are a few other exhibits happening concurrently (you can see the full list right here, and the Mega Model Trains exhibit is there as well (which we reviewed a few years ago here), and we always check out the rooms with the rocks and minerals in it, as well as the stuffed animal exhibit.
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