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The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis: The Girl with the Jelly Bean Earring?

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Just in time for Easter, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis will debut eight famous replica works of art created out of a unique element – jelly beans! The Masterpieces of Jelly Belly Art Collection was created by Indianapolis-raised artist Kristen Cumings for the Jelly Belly Candy Company and features large-scale mosaic representations of fine art masterpieces created entirely out of jelly beans.

Opening April 9, the replica art works to be displayed include American Gothic (original by Grant Wood), Girl with a Pearl Earring (original by Johannes Vermeer), The Great Wave Off Kanagawa (original by Katsushika Hokusai), Mona Lisa (original by Leonardo da Vinci), The Starry Night (original by Vincent van Gogh), We Can Do It! (original by J. Howard Miller), Woman with a Mango (original by Paul Gauguin) and Young Blonde Girl (original by Pierre-Auguste Renoir). 

Created over several months, each of the pieces took around 50-60 hours to create and contain between 9, 000-12, 000 beans. Cumings worked on small sections at a time using a spray adhesive. When finished, the final bean art works were sealed in acrylic to protect the beans from damage. Because individual jelly beans are used to create a mosaic pattern, the final art works are approximately four-feet-by-six-feet in size making for a larger-than-life representation of the original pieces.

The concept of “bean art” was born in 1982 when San Francisco artist Peter Rocha created a portrait of President Ronald Reagan – a well-known fan of Jelly Belly® jelly beans. The Masterpieces of Jelly Belly Art Collection is Jelly Belly’s first collection of re-created bean art masterpieces and was inspired by the first in Cumings series, the Mona Lisa, created in 2010.

After its public debut at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, the Masterpieces of Jelly Bean Art Collection will be displayed at the Jelly Belly Candy Company Visitor Center in Fairfield, Calif. Other bean artworks on display include portraits of Elvis Presley, Abraham Lincoln, Amelia Earhart and the Statue of Liberty, among others. View the collection online at JellyBelly.com/Art_Gallery.

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis is a nonprofit institution committed to creating extraordinary family learning experiences that have the power to transform the lives of children and families. The 472, 900 square-foot facility houses 11 major galleries. Visitors can explore the physical and natural sciences, history, world cultures, the arts, see how dinosaurs lived 65 million years ago in Dinosphere: Now You’re in Their World®, experience Dale Chihuly’s Fireworks of Glass and examine children’s impact in shaping history in The Power of Children: Making a Difference. The Children’s Museum, situated on 20 acres of land in Indianapolis, presents hundreds of programs and activities each year. For more information about The Children’s Museum in English and Spanish, visit childrensmuseum.org.  

The Jelly Belly Candy Co. introduced the Jelly Belly bean in 1976. The company currently makes over 100 year-round and seasonal gourmet candies at its company headquarters in Fairfield, Calif., and two additional manufacturing facilities. The company is a family-owned business now in its fifth and sixth generation of candy making. Additional information is available from the Jelly Belly Hotline (800) 522-3267 or at JellyBelly.com.

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