Coeur d’Alene opens nominations for 30th arts awards
Coeur d’Alene is taking nominations through Aug. 28 for its 30th arts awards, which honor artists, teachers, patrons and nonprofits that shape the city’s cultural life.
Coeur d’Alene residents have until Aug. 28 to nominate the people, businesses and organizations they think have shaped the city’s arts scene. The 30th annual Coeur d’Alene Arts Awards will be handed out in October, and the city is asking the public to put forward names from across visual, performing, literary and cultural arts.
The nominations matter beyond a plaque or stage recognition. City officials say the awards are meant to recognize and encourage excellence in the arts while widening awareness and appreciation in the community, which makes the program a civic marker for how Coeur d’Alene sees its own cultural identity. The Arts Commission is looking for leaders, creators, advocates, educators, volunteers and patrons whose work has kept the city’s arts life visible.
Eligible nominees can be businesses, organizations or individuals, and they do not have to live or be based inside Coeur d’Alene city limits. Current arts commissioners, their family members, staff and committee chairpersons are not eligible. Nomination forms can be downloaded from the city’s website, requested by calling City Hall at 208-769-2300, or picked up in person at City Hall.
The commission’s own history gives the awards added weight. The Coeur d’Alene Arts Commission was formally established under Ordinance No. 1709 in 1982 and now includes 13 members appointed by the mayor and city council. The awards were once known as the Mayor’s Awards in the Arts before the city renamed them the Coeur d’Alene Arts Awards to highlight inclusivity and the region’s creative reach.
Past honorees show how broad the program can be. The 29th annual awards recognized Sandi Bloem with the first Sandi Bloem Arts Legacy Award, Jenny Shotwell for Excellence in the Arts, Dan and Kathryn Pinkerton for Support of the Arts, Shakespeare CDA for Emerging Arts, Cynthia Chapman for Arts in Education and Jerren Bailey for Student Excellence in the Arts. The 28th annual awards honored ignite cda, Lorna Hamilton, Roger Dunsmore, Greg and Phebe Washington and Mariel Palmer-Kamprath.
At the 2025 ceremony, former Mayor Sandi Bloem said the first awards gathering drew about 20 people, a reminder of how much the event has grown. Now in its 30th year, the program has become one of the city’s clearest ways to publicly name the artists, backers and behind-the-scenes contributors who shape arts life in Coeur d’Alene and beyond.
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