Brickmania Blog

Brickmania Toyworks will be open for our third consecutive year during the Art-A-Whirl weekend. This is part of the neighborhood-wide  NE Minneapolis Art-A-Whirl, an event made possible by more than 500 participating artists and small businesses, and is one of the largest art crawls in the world.

This year, Brickmania will have our 7000 SF  main gallery space open to the public, featuring the works several local artists and artisans, live entertainment, pizza by the slice from Pizza Lucé and more. We are located in the historic Thorp Building and CBC, a 200,000 square foot former armaments factory located in the heart of the NE Minneapolis arts district.

Brickmania is proud to be local business partner with the NEMAA (Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association) and an avid supporter of the arts in Northeast Minneapolis and beyond.

DATE & TIMES

Brickmania will be open the following times during Art-A-Whirl 2013:

• Friday, May 17th: 5pm – 10pm
• Saturday, May 18th: noon – 8pm
• Sunday, May 19th: noon – 5pm

FEATURED GUEST ARTISTS

Brickmania is proud to be hosting booths for a number of talented local artists and artisans. This year our guest artists include…

Brandt LaFave Incredible hand made woodcarvings
Sue Christensen Proprietor and creative force behind Nameless Wilderness Clayworks, featuring unique, one-of-a-kind, hand-made stoneware.
Heidi Elmer Full time firefighter, multi media artist and proprietor of Heidiarts on Etsy.
Susan Opitz Internationally known painter and jewelry maker. Gallery at SusanOpitz.com
Jamie and Tricia LEGO brick art, photos, T-shirts and jewelry. Check out their amazing creations at iHEARTbricks.com
Cindy Mae Swee Hand crafted jewelry designer and owner of Dakota Mae Design.
Jeannine Wiltjer-Kelly Hand-made custom clothing for American Girl dolls and is the proprietor of Crazy for Hue.

We have a limited amount of space still available for artists. Get in touch if you’d like to share our space!

DID SOMEONE SAY PIZZA!?

Finding a bite to eat nearby can be a bit of a challenge during the evening, so we have invited our friends at Pizza Lucé to sell slices of their delicious Italian pies. Look for the pizza tent inside the Brickmania Toyworks or simply follow your nose! Exact hours of food service will be posted.

FRIDAY NIGHT MUSIC GUEST RACHAEL RESIST

Brickmania is pleased to announce we will have a special music guest Friday night! Rachael Resist is a local singer / songwriter who has been blazing a trail across the stages of our local honkey tonks and watering holes.  Rachael performs old-school blues-laden country and is just at home performing solo or with her band The Ranch Hand Resistance. Come and join the party on Friday night!

Check out her new album at Reverb Nation

SATURDAY NIGHT MUSIC GUESTS

We will be having some dinnertime entertainment at the Toyworks on Saturday evening. This is the schedule for Saturday night:

5-6pm and 7-8pm:

The Dang Ol Trio (local bluegrass)

6-7pm:

Liquor Store Apostle (local acoustic folk punk)

SUNDAY MAY POLE WRAP!

On Sunday afternoon we will have a traditional May Pole activity led by American folk dance caller Terrence Smith and his family. All are welcome to participate, so please join us for this very special event!

MORE SPACE FOR FUN!

Brickmania is located on the north side of the building and we  have our own street entrance located on 18th Ave NE (Google Maps: 909 18th ave ne, minneapolis, mn 55418). Our new space still features massive Lego train layouts from the Greater Midwest Lego Train Club and Twin Cities Lego Train Club, plus we will have much more space to feature prototype models and displays from the workshops of Brickmania’s design team. We also have a “stay and play” area with bricks for building and a ramp to race your wheeled vehicles!

DIRECTIONS & MAPS

FREE METRO TRANSIT BUS RIDES!

We are happy to announce that there will be free Metro Transit bus rides available on Saturday and Sunday of Art-A-Whirl thanks to a special partnership between NEMAA and MTC.  Click  HERE for more information and to download your free bus passes!