Signal boxes with a story: Meet creators behind downtown’s newest artwork

By Jill Callison, for Pigeon605

Miguel “Hugo” Jimenez chose the vibrant colors that he loved growing up in his native Guatemala.

Chuck Bennis brought an early Sioux Falls resident out of history’s shadow.

Alee Wratz turned a school project into a chance to celebrate people’s differences.

And all three, along with multiple other artists, turned 26 traffic signal control boxes in downtown Sioux Falls into works of art.

“Every time I see one, it makes me so happy,” said Kellen Boice, executive director of the Sioux Falls Arts Council. The Arts Council issued the call for artists and assisted with an effort to bring in nontraditional artists for the competition. Forty-six artists had their work chosen, with some boxes showing the work of multiple submitters.

The control boxes, found between Sixth and 14th streets from Minnesota Avenue to just east of Phillips Avenue, now are wrapped in a durable, graffiti-proof vinyl that will last for years. The artwork joins other pieces such as murals and SculptureWalk in Sioux Falls’ core but gave an opportunity to artists of all skill levels.

Some of the artists are students age 19 and older who participate in the LifeScape Center for the Arts. Center director Jamie Richardson said the program supports artists of all ages, but the participants in this event just happened to be all adults. Some attend school at LifeScape.

“It’s very important to our artists to be recognized for their abilities versus disabilities and to know they’re an equivalent artist to anyone in our community, that their art has value and is being seen by people traveling to downtown and on the way to work. And that it brings joy to Sioux Falls,” Richardson said.

The artists could submit information about the pieces’ meanings. QR codes installed with the art let viewers learn more about the artists.

Becky Mayrose titled her piece “The Big Woods” and noted, “I like to go camping, and this is what the sun looks like shining through the trees in the forest.”

Another Center for the Arts participant, Haley Swanson, called her work “I Spy” and challenged viewers to see the multiple images she included. She wrote: “I love that if you turn your eyes and look at the artwork you can spy all sorts of different images floating inside the painting. Can you find the flamingo? Can you find a mad face? Can you find a dinosaur? A fish? A wet cat? What else do YOU see?”

Jimenez, who uses his late father’s first name in his artwork to honor the man who was killed when his son was 2, called his painting “The Last Sunrise.” It shows bombs exploding on mankind’s last day on Earth. The lone tree in the painting symbolizes extinction.

Jimenez moved to Sioux Falls 12 years ago. Now 35, he is a part-time artist and part-time construction worker. He prefers to use oil paint for his landscapes and portraits because acrylics dry too fast for someone who can’t devote himself to painting full time. He currently has a piece temporarily on display in the mayor’s office at City Hall.

Viewers who see his art box may be spurred to action before it is too late, said the father of two. He has been gratified by the response he has received.

“I got some messages from people that I never met on Facebook, and they say good things about my work,” Jimenez said. “This is a good way to show it off.”

Alee, a fifth-grader at Discovery Elementary, had completed an art project there when her mother brought the control-box project to her attention. Both Alee and her younger sister, Kinlee, had work chosen. Alee’s box is near Fawick Park while Kinlee’s is across from the Washington Pavilion CineDome. Alee’s box wrap was designed to look as if someone hung the artwork on a school locker with a magnet.

The school art project used arrows to symbolize people, how they are different in different ways. Alee designed two pieces, her mother Abby Wratz said, and then chose the one she liked best. Alee’s submission piece said, “We are all different in so many ways and each going in our own different direction, but all make up and are a part of the community. “

“I never thought people would see my art besides my family,” Alee said. “It feels good.”

“It just brightens up the downtown area,” her mother said. “Some have inspirational quotes on them, and it’s a neat thing.”

Bennis usually identifies himself as a digital artist. The Brookings resident worked for the YMCA for 20 years as an executive director. When he moved seven years ago, he focused on being a stay-at-home dad and an artist. He started as a caricature artist and then jumped to a thriving mural business. One of his pieces can be seen in the Pavilion’s Kirby Science Discovery Center’s three-floor stairwell.

His art box can be found across from Shriver Square, and the location strikes him as particularly appropriate. His design features Louise Harvey Mitchell, a Black business owner and entrepreneur who ran a beauty salon in the Shriver building in the early 1900s. She served as a director of the Sioux Falls YMCA, where she organized various Black leagues for baseball, track and basketball.

“When I went to check out the box, I really had a moment,” Bennis said “I can see her just walking out the door. She probably hiked the street running between her business and the YMCA all the time.”

Mitchell and her husband opened the Booker T. Washington Center on Phillips Avenue. African Americans who moved to the area came to the center to find lodging and other resources. She helped people learn vocational skills and open businesses across the country, Bennis learned in his research.

As an artist, Bennis finds it gratifying when he can change someone’s environment. His work with murals does that on a large scale, but he is equally pleased to make a difference on something as small — and utilitarian — as a utility box.

“An electrical box is a very functional thing, but it’s not like it’s the most visually appealing thing,” he said. “When you can transform it by wrapping it in art, what a great, great thing that is.”

The artists were paid a stipend for their work, and the project was funded with a grant from the Bloomberg Foundation, of which the Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation served as fiscal sponsor, and a contribution from the downtown economic development incentive fund administered by Downtown Sioux Falls Inc.