Indiana State Museum opens 2 interactive exhibits

Towers of Tomorrow shows off Lego skyscrapers

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indiana State Museum is hosting two new exhibits showing off history — one with centuries-old blankets and the other through one of the most popular toys in the world.

“Towers of Tomorrow with LEGO Bricks” displays 20 different skyscrapers from Asia, Australia, and North America.

The exhibit includes over 200,000 loose bricks for visitors to engineer a tower of their own.

Carla Knapp, the museum’s director of communications, says it’s been great to see everyone’s imagination run wild.

“We have the science of architecture and engineering with the art of the design,” Knapp said. “Then of course, the elements of play and interaction that we see all of our visitors enjoying — whether they’re young or old or in between.”

Towers of Tomorrow runs through May 12.

Meanwhile, the museum’s newest exhibit — “Woven Together” — looks to tell stories of early Hoosier settlers in the 19th century using coverlets, a type of woven bedspread.

Visitors will see over 30 of them while learning about the people who made them.

Knapp says the blanket was both functional for warmth and an artistic expression for the homeowners at the time.

“With the fabrics that people had here in Indiana in the early 1800s you would see colors like blue, black, and white,” Knapp said. “As the Industrial Revolution began and we come into the 1830s through the 1870s when these coverlets were made, you begin to see these remarkable vibrant colors that people had never seen before in their fabrics.”

Woven Together opens Saturday and runs through the end of June.

Both exhibits are included with admission. To buy tickets, visit the museum’s website.