Festival at Sandpoint unveils 2025 poster

By Reader Staff

Perky Smith-Hagadone’s 2025 Festival at Sandpoint fine arts poster. Courtesy photo

The Festival at Sandpoint unveiled the 2025 fine arts poster at its July 8 sponsor appreciation dinner at The Idaho Club.

Local artist Perky Smith-Hagadone’s “Wild Cantata” was selected as the winner for the Festival’s 2025 poster contest. Smith-Hagadone’s piece is set on Gold Hill, looking toward Sandpoint. A great blue heron lifts its wings to the falling dusk while various birds perch on its wings, including a lazuli bunting, an American goldfinch, a song sparrow, a western tanager, a California quail and a rufous hummingbird.

“As a birder and a lover of our natural world, finding inspiration was not difficult,” Smith-Hagadone said. “As the Festival at Sandpoint is surrounded by stunning mountains, lakes and rivers, and filled with essential native flora and fauna, I wanted to showcase some of the beauty of our native birds in hopes that we continue to preserve our wild areas for all who call it home.”

Regarding the title of her piece, a cantata is a musical composition for voices and instruments, often featuring a choir. The word comes from the Italian word “cantare,” which means “to sing.”

“Bird song is probably one of the world’s most original pieces of music,” she said. “I felt the birds wanted to join in a wild cantata with the myriad of Festival musicians.”

The media used includes watercolor, watercolor pencils and table salt to add movement and texture.

Poster prints and T-shirts featuring the poster are on sale now at the Festival office, 525 Pine St., in Sandpoint.

[Disclosure: Perky Smith-Hagadone is Reader Editor-in-Chief Zach Hagadone’s mother.]