Arts & Entertainment
'Name the Birdhouse' Contest Is Aflutter With Entries
Winner will receive tickets to Project Return's Annual Birdhouse Auction
Entries are flying in for the Project Return Name the Birdhouse contest.
“We’ve got almost 100 suggestions so far,” reports Westport-based assemblage artist Nina Bentley, who devised the competition. “We are getting some really creative and really interesting ideas.”
The contest challenges entrants to come up with a name for Bentley’s gold-plated birdhouse creation. Her soon-to-be-named entry will be among the 150-plus birdhouses featured during Project Return’s 16th Annual Birdhouse Auction, which takes place April 1.
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The winner of the Name the Birdhouse Contest will receive two tickets to the gala fundraiser, valued at $250. The fundraiser will be held at Rolling Hills Country Club in Wilton.
Organizers of Project Return's annual auction invite professional and amateur artists and craftsmen to donate handmade birdhouses to the fundraising effort. The birdhouses are then auctioned to support the Westport-based organization, which provides a for adolescent girls.
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Bentley’s birdhouse entry is constructed from gold-plated jewelry-making findings. Some of her favorite name suggestions, to date, include “All that Twitters,” “Enviary,” and “Westport’s Gold Age Home.”
“We are leaning toward suggestions that mix the ‘gold’ and ‘birdhouse’ themes,” Bentley said.
Bentley’s birdhouse is on view in the window of Westport Pizzeria at 107 Main St. through Feb. 28. A photograph of the birdhouse is posted on the Project Return web site at www.projectreturnct.org.
Suggestions can be emailed to namethatbirdhouse@projectreturnct.org. "Some people have submitted seven or eight ideas," reports Bentley. "There is no limit on the number of entries per person."
Submissions will be accepted through March 3. The contest winner will be announced during the Birdhouse Stroll, which takes place March 10 in downtown Westport.
During the Birdhouse Stroll, local businesses will display Project Return's Birdhouse Auction entries in their store windows. Food and beverages will be available along the way as artists lead group tours around the downtown area to showcase the 2011 submissions.
