Oct. 2, 2024

For the past two weeks, a team of muralists has been transforming a brick wall inside the new Canopy by Hilton into a canvas for a signature piece of artwork.

“It’s two floors and probably 60 feet across,” said Taylor Gallegos, a San Diego muralist who installed the work. “They gave me the full color renderings and the sizing and scale, and then it’s my job to get that on the wall proportionally and with accurate colors.”

Gallegos was in Sioux Falls to bring the work of Holly Young to life. Though the two artists never met in person, they collaborated through an intermediary to turn Young’s design into an installation that will serve as a focal point in the hotel when Canopy by Hilton opens at The Steel District in November.

Located in downtown Sioux Falls adjacent to Falls Park, the Lloyd Hospitality Group project will bring 216 guest rooms, more than 20,000 square feet of meeting space and a full-service Italian restaurant to the development.

Canopy hotels are known for their unique designs that are influenced by the local community.

In this case, “we knew that Native American history was a part of the story we wanted to tell through this hotel,” said Jennifer Seifert-Brenna, vice president of Lloyd Hospitality. “Through research and using an art consultant, we came across these pieces that Holly paints on ledger paper and then started looking at how we could incorporate her work from the guest rooms through to the public spaces.”

Young is a North Dakota-based artist who was born and grew up in a rural area of Standing Rock Reservation and uses floral designs in her work.

“Dakota floral is a cultural indicator of my people and community,” she said.

“These designs represent and honor our connection to the land that provides sustenance and medicine to our people. It is a deep history that I try to honor myself as a Dakota woman through my artwork.”

In Native American culture, the designs commonly were found on clothing, tobacco bags and pipe bags, she said.

“I know it can seem strange to see it in a hotel on walls,” Young said. “But my thoughts were that this is an area that is Oceti Sakowin land originally. It is a way to take up space and remind the public of that history. It also reminds one to possibly think of the land and our ideas of what beauty is.”

Her work is seen in each guest room at the hotel, imposed on ledger paper from Sioux Steel — the company that occupied the site before redevelopment — that goes back to the 1950s.

“We found this old stock paper and digitized it and then sent it to Holly, and she painted an image similar to the mural,” Seifert-Brenna said. “And we fell in love with the idea when we discovered Native Americans often used ledger paper as the basis of their art because resources were so slim.”

As Gallegos brought the larger work to life in the common area, he said he went back and forth with the design team “to make sure everything is fully accurate to the original art. I think it’s cool that the hotel brought in design styles of Native Americans — as they should.”

A producer of original art in addition to taking on work like this mural installation, Gallegos has installed pieces everywhere from Coors Field in Colorado to the headquarters of X, formerly Twitter, in California. His own fine art is represented in a gallery in San Diego.

“But I’m happy to do this work and get brought on in other cool projects,” he said. “And I’ve loved my time in Sioux Falls. It’s great. We’ve been going to all the local restaurants and enjoying the town and morning jogs on the river.”

The work is installed on “a beautiful two-story wall, everyone can see it, and it just seemed like the perfect place for this,” Seifert-Brenna said. “We hope it becomes an image people will recognize, and when they see it, they’ll know it’s at the Canopy. We want to tie this imagery throughout the building, and we can’t wait for people to experience the Canopy and see this art installation among many others throughout the hotel and convention center.”

For Young, “I am grateful to be included in a project of this type, actually a first of its kind,” she said. “I don’t have any art in hotels … and to create public art is to have longevity, to possibly create conversations around what these floral designs mean and how we can learn from them.”