Nature's Blueprints: Biomimicry in Art and Design

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Children are always free!

Nature’s Blueprints is a family-friendly show featuring a dozen interactive learning stations that explore ways we can be inspired by nature’s incredibly resourceful designs. The show features a dozen sensory stations that use sound, touch, and interactive games to make connections between nature, art and design such as: how burrs from a forest informed velcro, the shape of a beetle’s teeth helped an inventor create a more efficient chainsaw, bird and bat wing shapes aided the early flight tests, spiderwebs inspired suspension bridges, and more.

Nature's Blueprints includes an installation by Chicago architect Alicia Ponce about how her architectural structures emulate patterns, forms, and processes found in nature. Two additional exhibitions at the museum will complement the nationally traveling show: a solo show by Chicago painter Raúl Ortiz within the Museum’s historic McCormick House and approximately 35 local artists will participate in the Elmhurst Artists’ Guild Summer Members Show.

Visit this show or attend one of our weekend STEAM workshops to discover how art, design, and environmental science can lead to extraordinary inventions that improve our lives.

Sponsored by the Explore Elmhurst Grant Program and The Driskill Foundation

The nationally traveling exhibition is a program of ExhibitsUSA, a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance and the National Endowment for the Arts.