Sweet Pea Festival Announces Contest Winners
The Sweet Pea Festival is pleased to announce the 2021 winners of their annual poster, adult and children’s t-shirt design contests. Additionally, this year the Festival added a new category for the best coffee mug design.
This year’s poster contest winner is Ali Swain, a 20-year-old student who resides in Bozeman. “I moved here from Chicago because I absolutely fell in love with the people and the area. I come from an artistic family and have been drawing ever since I could hold a pencil. I am actually newer to painting, as I normally stick to drawing.” Some of Ali's passions include skiing, writing, and traveling. She will attend MSU in the Fall, pursuing a major in pre-veterinary sciences. “Because of my love for animals I decided to paint a moose,” Ali stated. “I am very honored to be a part of this year’s festival that’s so unique to Bozeman. I can’t wait to attend!”
Josie Trudgeon is the winner of this year’s adult t-shirt design contest. “I am a Butte artist and photographer. I’m honored my work was chosen for the 2021 Sweet Pea t-shirt! I remember the buzz surrounding the Sweet Pea Festival when I first moved to Bozeman in 1999. I had to look up what a sweet pea was, and they quickly became a favorite flower. I grow them every year. Floral is my favorite subject to paint and draw. I work in oil, acrylic and watercolor.” Josie holds a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts and Communication from Saint Cloud State University. Married with two teenage children, Josie has lived in Butte since 2002.
Ten-year old Kaia Batton is this year’s children’s t-shirt design contest winner. Kaia lives with her mom, dad, and brother. She has two dogs, two tortoises, and three hermit crabs. Kara loves dragons, the book series Wings of Fire, and looks forward to attending middle school next Fall. She also likes creating art, performing aerial silk, rafting and boating, camping, and playing with her friends.
This year, Sweet Pea Festival also held a contest for the design of a coffee mug. Coco Costigan’s hand-thrown pottery mug was the winning design for this first-of-its-kind contest. Coco has been creating art in clay since 1992. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in ceramics from California State University, Long Beach, in 1996. Coco, her husband, and their two children moved to Bozeman in 2019. She currently works and teaches in her home studio. Coco’s realist/sculptural work will be on exhibit at the Jessie Wilber Gallery in the Emerson Center for Arts & Culture in August 2021. A limited number of Coco’s Sweet Pea Festival mugs will be numbered and signed.
Congratulations to COCO COSTIGAN for winning Sweet Pea's first ever COFFEE MUG contest. These mugs are so beautiful and truly a work of art. Coco wins $1000 and will make a limited amount of numbered mugs for us to sell at the Festival. You can pre-order them now and pick up between July 26 & August 3 at our office.
For more information or to place your preorders for this year’s coffee mug please contact the Sweet Pea Festival office at 406-586-4003 or visit the festival website at https://sweetpeafestival.org. Posters, postcards and t-shirts will be available online and at the Festival.
ABOUT SWEET PEA FESTIVAL:
The Sweet Pea Festival is a three-day festival of the arts held in Bozeman, Montana, since 1978. Festival dates are always the first full weekend in August with other events, such as Chalk on the Walk and The Bite of Bozeman starting off the festivities of Sweet Pea Week. The festival includes everything from music, theatre and dance, to children’s activities, arts and crafts vendors from Bozeman and around the country, and adult painting workshops. The Sweet Pea Festival is committed to its mission statement of “promoting and cultivating the arts.”
Hundreds of volunteers run and organize this annual event, a testament to the community’s desire for its ongoing success. All monies raised above what is needed to operate the festival are given back to the community in the form of grants for the arts, art education, and special projects in the Bozeman area. “Where art and community meet.”
