The second consecutive year of the Best of the Best Lantern Competition produced a high quality of creativity and innovation centered around the cooperation between two friendly nations, The Republic of China (Taiwan) and Saint Lucia.
The Competition formed part of the Republic of China (Taiwan) National Day Celebration and was a collaboration between the Embassy of Taiwan in Saint Lucia and the Cultural Development Foundation (CDF).
The Competition was enthralling as artists competed for the renowned title. The innovation around the theme: #TaiwanSaintLuciaStrong epitomized the thinking outside of the box type of creativity, highlighting the areas of cooperation such as ICT, Agriculture, Education, Covid-19 assistance, robot technology to assist with marketing Saint Lucia’s rich cultural heritage as a viable tourism product to name a few.
Last year’s 1st prize winner Gilland Avril was dethroned by Kissia Peter whose creation was titled – Together we are stronger. Symbolizing – duality, showing two countries put together forming a bond and sharing each other’s culture and tourism product. The lantern highlighted the recent use of the Robot Technology to market Saint Lucia’s rich cultural heritage as a tourism marketing tool to the people of China (Taiwan) and was relayed live from Pigeon Island National Park last month. Peter’s lantern will be displayed in Taiwan at its 2022 Annual National Lantern Festival.
The competition was keenly contested with Anita Felix ranking second with a depiction entitled Mèsi inspired by a village in Taiwan, and the assistance and collaborations Taiwan has rendered to St Lucia. Felix also won the Most Innovative Lantern prize.
Giovanni St Omer, a veteran visual artist won the third prize for his interpretation of the Power of friendship between the two countries depicting the Taiwanese Dragon and Saint Lucia Parrot (Amazona Versicolor).
Prizes awarded were as follows:
1st Prize – $1500.00
2nd Prize – $1000.00
3rd Prize – $ 700.00
Most Innovative Lantern – $500.00
The Ambassadors special prize was awarded to six- year-old Joli Christopher, the youngest participant to enter the competition.
Ambassador H.E. Peter Chen was deeply gratified by the output of the artists and reiterated his support for this annual event.
The artistry in this competition has indeed raised the bar for future lantern competitions as was very evident in the use of recycled material, innovation, interpretation of theme, workmanship and creativity.
The CDF is hoping to introduce a developmental component to this competition to foster greater participation and improved creativity in the lantern making tradition.
The CDF takes this opportunity to express profound gratitude to all the participating artists and looks forward to working with them and emerging lantern makers in the future.