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For the 14th year, handmade lighthouses — in styles ranging from pop culture to fantasy — are positioned through the aquarium’s galleries. They’re part of a juried art show — and the aquarium’s visitors are the judges.
The competition? It’s real.
“The stakes get higher every year,” according to Maritime Aquarium publicist Dave Sigworth, who said many contestants are repeat entrants. “They up their game the next year.”
This year, 22 handmade entries are on display through Jan. 18. The winner will receive $1,500. Five runners up will receive cash, too.
The contest attracts students and hobbyists alike. Students at the Ursuline School in New Rochelle, N.Y., usually submit an entry. The school holds its own contest — a sort of qualifying round — to determine which entry to submit to the Maritime Aquarium as each school can submit only one entry.
Entrants also include dedicated hobbyists from all over Fairfield County and Westchester County and beyond, hailing from towns from West Haven to Hartsdale, N.Y.
“There’s something about doing this, it's like some sort of addictive bug for people,” Sigworth said. “They really enjoy doing it.”
The aquarium’s visitors also enjoy voting. Sigworth said the aquarium has collected about 12,000 ballots in past years.
Each visitor to the aquarium — children and adults included — is offered a ballot. Sigworth said most visitors take the voting very seriously. Families have spirited discussions over voting, he said.
Children tend to gravitate toward voting for entries with candy and cartoon characters, while the adults tend to like the elegant and the imaginative.
No two lighthouses in the display this year look remotely similar, but they all must have a few common characteristics. According to contest rules, lighthouses must be 3 to 6 feet tall and have a working light, and may not include animal remains, such as shells.
And all require hours and hours of building.
“There’s a lot of work that goes into these lighthouses,” Sigworth said. “The fact that people do this — and we get to display them — is always just a kick for us.”
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