Thursday, December 15, 2011

Review: The Leonardo

The Leonardo
Location: 209 East 500 South  Salt Lake City, UT 84111-3203

(801) 531-9800
Cost: $12 a person or you can get a family 4 pack for $40.  Kids under 5 are free.


Review:  I've been hearing lots of advertisements for this museum on KSL.  I'm a sucker for museums, so for my birthday, my family and I went.  Parking wasn't too bad, there were metered spots near by and they were free for 2 hours (at least at Christmas time).  The museum was a mixture of art, creativity, and technology. 

On the ground floor was a few large art pieces (one of which scared my two-year-old).  There was also a creation area where we made cardboard puppets for use upstairs in the stop motion animation studio.  I had fun making my puppet.  There was also a cool interactive floor map, but we never got a chance to try it as it was always in use.

Upstairs we tried out the a 3D motion capture room. You moved around in a room and an animated elf copied your motion.  My kids had a blast playing with a green screen.  My four-year-old had fun playing with a touch screen computer that she could use a paint brush on.  We didn't get to try the stop motion exhibit since all were in use.  We didn't get a chance to really explore the artificial limbs exhibit or other things as this museum was not holding my youngest child's attention.

All in all, I liked the museum.  It would be OK for kids four and up, but ideally probably six and up.  My main complaint with it was that we always had to wait.  Most of the exhibits, only one person could use at a time and the exhibits could be used for a long time.  It was not crowded when we went, and we were always waiting.  I look forward to see what else they add.  It's worth a trip, but not if you have young children.