#legosforweiwei

Lego Changes Its Policy After Refusing Ai Weiwei Purchase

Lego has changed its policy on bulk orders after the hugely unpopular decision to refuse a purchase from Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei. Last fall, Lego blocked (ha ha) a bulk purchase from Ai Weiwei citing “political grounds.” The artist had ordered the bricks for a project celebrating human rights and free speech advocates at the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia’s oldest public art…

Little by little, brick by brick, our LEGO Collection Point has been filling up. Visitors and supporters across the country have turned out to support Ai Weiwei and freedom of expression. We have received LEGO donations from Museum visitors as well as packages of LEGOS mailed from Birmingham, Alabama; Long Beach, California; Santa Barbara, California; Bloomington, Indiana; Davenport, Florida; Orlando, Florida; Oakham, Massachusetts; Croton, New York; Purchase, New York; Scarsdale, New York; Suffern, New York; Baden, Pennsylvania; Sandy, Utah; Salt Lake City, Utah; Herndon, Virginia; and even Hatillo, Puerto Rico! In addition to these generous donations, the Des Moines Art Center contacted us as they wanted to collect LEGOS to combine with our location. They ended up receiving nearly 70 pounds of donated LEGOS (bottom left), which I personally carried back on a plane after a family visit. Way to go, Des Moines! Needless to say, we have been thoroughly impressed with the show of support. We hope you'll consider donating this weekend if you haven't already. 

The building blocks of dissidence: Chinese artist Ai Weiwei and #Legogate

Ai Weiwei has been in the news quite a lot lately so today we are sharing this article written by Anne Harris from Monash University. Later this week there will be more shared here as well. Thanks for visiting the blog and feel free to share your thoughts and opinions in the comment section. Below this article are a series of links to ‘#legogate‘ articles. [su_divider top=”no” style=”dotted”…

On Monday, we were contacted by Ai Weiwei and his studio and asked if we would participate in his new project. Ai’s LEGO Collection Point is part of his ongoing efforts to challenge censorship. On October 23, Ai posted on Instagram: “In September LEGO refused Ai Weiwei Studio's request for a bulk order of LEGOs to create artwork to be shown at the National Gallery of Victoria as ‘they cannot approve the use of LEGOs for political works’.” Ai’s post triggered a flood of responses on social media criticizing LEGO for "censorship and discrimination" by refusing Ai's order. Thousands of anonymous supporters offered to donate their used LEGOs to Ai. 

In response to the overwhelming enquiries about donating used LEGOs, Ai posted on Instagram and indicated that he would “make a new work to defend freedom of speech and ‘political art’” using donated LEGOs. Within days, major museums around the world established collection points including those in Melbourne, Berlin, London, Copenhagen, and Málaga, Spain.

We had to act fast, but by Thursday morning we had a collection vehicle parked in front of the Museum and ready to receive LEGO donations. Our staff chipped in with some of the first donations, and I promised my son that I would donate some of his LEGOs too. 

If you have some spare LEGOs, donate them to support freedom of expression. You can deposit them via the car’s sunroof during the Museum’s open hours until November 29th. Donations can also be made by mail to Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York, 11238 (please mark packages c/o AWW Lego Collection).