TAUNY'S ANNUAL SUGAR & SPICE GINGERBREAD CONTEST "2020"

TAUNY's annual Sugar & Spice Gingerbread Contest theme this year is "2020." For this year's Sugar & Spice Gingerbread Contest theme, TAUNY invites you to express something about 2020 in gingerbread. Home-school and office setups, sanitizer and supply shortages, hospitals and helpers, the special places you've been missing and the special places you've found over these unusual months. Did you spend more time at home, at camp, out paddling or hiking or exploring? Did you work on big home or garden projects? Did you get a quarantine puppy? If you could go anywhere in the world right now with no travel restrictions, where would you dream of going? TAUNY encourages interested participants to get creative and interpret the theme how you wish, using gingerbread to create a scene, a place, an item, or anything else that comes to mind that represents something especially meaningful or interesting to you about this year.

Submissions can be dropped off at The TAUNY Center during business hours Friday, November 27th through Tuesday, December 1st. As always, the Sugar & Spice Gingerbread Contest and Display entries must be made of gingerbread baked from scratch and be entirely edible. Maximum base size is 20" x 20". Please bring in your submission on a sturdy base of some kind. A registration form (available online at tauny.org and in The North Country Folkstore) will include space for a brief description of the gingerbread house and/or a statement from the artist. Entries will be accepted, and prizes awarded in four categories: adult (ages 18+), youth (12-17 with no adult help), children (under 12 with minimal adult help), and family/youth/community group. Entries created by groups are encouraged. Interested participants who wish to display their work but not enter the competition are also welcome.

The Sugar & Spice Gingerbread Display will open to the public and winners will be announced on Saturday, December 5. Visitors can see the gingerbread creations at The TAUNY Center and submit a vote for the People's Choice Award through December 22.

Since 2002, contestants from throughout the region have competed annually in various age categories as well as for the People's Choice Award, which is announced at the end of December. Past themes have included "on the farm," myths and fairy tales, "where the music happens," camps and cottages, local landmarks, children's literature, and gingerbread around the world. The 2020 Sugar & Spice Gingerbread Contest and Display are supported by underwriting from Stewart's Shops.

The TAUNY Center is located at 53 Main Street, Downtown Canton, NY. TAUNY, Traditional Arts in Upstate New York, is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people understand and appreciate the folk traditions and local culture of everyday life--present and past--in the North Country. To do so, TAUNY seeks to research and preserve a record of diverse groups, customs and traditions; to recognize and empower traditional arts and artists; to identify and promote regional identity; and to provide opportunities for people of all ages to learn about folklore and culture. More information is available at tauny.org.