If you missed this year's 6th Annual LEGO contest held at Weber's Inn last night you missed the highlight of some Ann Arborites' year! Breaking all previous records this year's contest was the biggest ever with 206 entries in 6 categories: Preschool, Grades K-2, Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12 and Adult. And about 600 people attended the awards ceremony last night too! Thanks to all of this year's participants and we look forward to seeing you next year. Sometime soon there will be photographs of every winner's LEGO project linked here and permanently found on our contest page. Without further ado, the winners (after the jump).

Hopefully you have been working hard on your LEGO project for this week's upcoming 6th Annual LEGO Contest held at Weber's Inn this Thursday! If you haven't be sure to read the rules and guidelines and get cracking! Preschoolers all the way through Adults are invited to enter or come look at this always exciting contest. The doors will be open for the public to come take a look from 6:00-8:00 PM with the Award Ceremony to immediately follow at 8:00 PM. As always there will be gift cards to Target for the winners, special ribbons and LEGO trophies! Hope to see you there! Check out our video of some of last year's winners.

LEGO Trophies
Yesterday was our 5th annual LEGO® Contest and once again it was one of the highlights of the year! We had 173 entries from preschool age through Adults (this was just the first year they were invited so adults plan your projects for next summer!). This year we also debuted custom-made AADL LEGO® Trophies - complete with an AADL mini-fig! The trophies were made for us by The Original Brick Engraver, Tommy Armstrong. The lucky 1st place winners in each of the six age categories each received a trophy. The top three finishers in each category received gift cards to Target in the amounts of $35, $25 and $15 respectively. Ribbons were also given out in the special categories. The judges reserved the right to "switch-up" some of the categories where appropriate so you may notice a few different categories listed below. A special thanks to the judges, Eli Neiburger, AADL Associate Director of IT and Production & Amanda Sari Perez and Josh Valdes, both of All Hands Active an Ann Arbor Maker's community. Our "little" contest including a list of the winners' made the Ann Arbor Journal paper and online versions and was also picked up by the American Library Association's weekly news too. Congrats to all of the participants and without further ado please congratulate the winners (with photos of winning entries to follow soon):

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If it's summer it must be time for our annual contests! This year is our 5th annual Lego Contest & we're inviting ADULTS in on the fun!! We're also pleased to announce our Make It Happen in Ann Arbor Photo Contest! Use your leisurely summer time to focus your creativity and take a chance on winning! In order to enter either contest participants must read and follow the rules and guidelines.

Children, teens and adults are invited to enter the 5th Annual Lego Contest & the Make It Happen Photo Contest. Winners of both contests will receive gift cards to Target. Once again the Lego contest will take place at Weber's Inn (3050 Jackson Ave) on Thursday, August 5. The Make It Happen Photo Contest Award's Ceremony will be on Wednesday, July 28 @ the Downtown Library. For complete rules & submission guidelines for the Lego contest click here. For the Make It Happen photo contest rules & guidelines click here.

LEGOs are awesome. They were awesome when I was a kid, and they are awesome now when I play with them with other peoples’ kids. The library has a slew of books for LEGO maniacs of all levels. My top two: LEGO Star Wars: A Visual Dictionary, and it's just that. It has the best images and descriptions of all things LEGO & Star Wars. I could stare at the pages for hours. For a history of LEGOs, info on various sets that have been manufactured, and descriptions of the theme parks, etc., check out The LEGO Book.

And it’s not too early to save the date for AADL’s annual LEGO contest on August 5! Check the new AXIS brochure for details.

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Another summer, another LEGO contest and good times were had by all! This year we had 155 entries and over 300 people attended the Awards Ceremony! The top three winners in each of the five age categories (Preschool, K-2, 3-5, 6-8 & 9-12) received gift certificates to Toys R Us and medals. Special thanks to our hardworking judges: Eli Neiburger, AADL Associate Director of IT and Product Development, Eric Klooster, AADL IT Application Developer and finally Langel Bookbinder, Founder and Proprietor of battleofthebits.org. The judges needed every second of their three hours of deliberation to make the hard decisions this year!

Congratulations to all of our winners! And see you next year!

Click read more to see all of this year's winners.

Lego Contest year 2

If it's summer it must be time for our annual Lego and Manga Contests! Use the summer to focus your creativity and maybe you will win! In order to enter either contest participants must read and follow the rules and guidelines. Children and teens aged preschool to 12th grade are invited to enter the 4th Annual Lego Contest. This year the Lego contest award ceremony will take place at Weber's Inn (3050 Jackson Ave) on Monday, August 10 @ 8:00 PM. For complete submission guidelines and the talent release form click here. Top finishers will receive gift certificates to Toys R Us, and we'll have medals for winners of the special categories!

It's our 3rd Annual Manga Drawing Contest for grades K-12. The award ceremony will be on Monday, July 27 @ 7:00 PM in the Downtown Youth Room. For complete submission guidelines and the talent release form click here. Top finishers will receive gift certificates for Wizzywig Collectibles!

2008 Graffiti Contest

Take a look at some of the best talent Ann Arbor has to offer! All of the entries to the AADL's 2008 LEGO Contest and the 2008 Graffiti Art Contest are now online as a part of our online photo gallery, pictureAnnArbor. The Graffiti Art Contest gallery features over 40 creations by local teen artists made right here in the AADL's backyard. And the LEGO Contest gallery features every one of the 130 entries that came in this year. Come check out your own work, your friends' work, or just get some inspiration for your own artistic creations.

Don't forget that the 2008 Graffiti Art Contest entries are also on display in the Downtown Library until August 28.

2008 LEGO Contest

Once again our annual LEGO® contest was a blast! Families dropped off their entries on Tuesday night and all day Wednesday, the judges deliberated for almost 3(!) hours and then we packed the house with people wanting to look! This year we had over 130 projects entered into the contest - making it tougher for the judges to decide. Thanks to our judges Eli Neiburger, AADL Associate Director of IT and Product Development, Eric Klooster, AADL IT Component Developer and finally Duane Collicott, local LEGO® enthusiast and Brick Bash Master. Those that placed 1st Place, Runner-Up and Honorable Mention each got gift cards to Toys R Us, plus an award medal. Award medals were also given to those who placed in the special categories. NEW this year! Stay tuned later this summer for the LEGO® Contest Photo Gallery of every project submitted!

Without further ado behold the winners!

Lego Contest year 2

A year has passed, you've been planning and we can't wait to see what you come up with! We're happy to be hosting our 3rd annual Lego® Contest for preschoolers thru 12th grade. Prizes will be awarded in five age categories. Complete rules and guidelines can be found here. Even if you don't enter the contest we invite you to come and take a look on the evening of Wednesday, July 30 in the Downtown library multi-purpose room - it's a spectacular, but limited time only display. Last year we had over 100 entries! Doors open @ 7.

We invite fans of anime and manga, who also like to draw, or write comics, to enter our 2nd Annual Manga Drawing Contest. Entries are limited to those in grades K - 12. Prizes will be awarded in four age categories! Complete rules and guidelines can be found here. All artwork submitted will be on display in the Downtown Youth Department during the month of August.