AUArts student chosen as winner of 2026 Calgary Stampede Youth Poster Competition
Posted Oct 6, 2025 10:41 am.
Last Updated Oct 6, 2025 10:10 pm.
The 2026 Calgary Stampede may be nine months away, but an annual tradition is already taking shape.
The poster for next year’s festival, When the Grass Dances, was revealed Monday. It was created by 22-year-old artist Dayna Loepp.
It captures Champion Junior Men’s Grass Dancer, Tyrone Sitting Eagle, of Siksika Nation, competing at the 2024 Calgary Stampede Powwow.
The Stampede says the artwork honour both the vibrancy of powwow traditions and the intergenerational connections that continue to connect families and communities to the Stampede.
“Watching the First Nations dancers, I can’t express it any other way except beautiful and meaningful,” Loepp, who is in the final year of her Bachelor of Design degree at the Alberta University of the Arts, said. “I was honoured to be introduced to Tyrone through the program. Getting to know him, learning about his dance and his family’s traditions made a deep impact on me, and I hope that others see that come through in my painting.”
Loepp was chosen through the Stampede’s Youth Poster Competition and is the 2026 recipient of the $10,000 Dustin Peers Memorial Scholarship, funded by the Brandon Flock Foundation.
When the Grass Dances is on display at Sam Centre until Oct. 14, alongside past poster competition winners in the Branded: The Art of Calgary Stampede Posters exhibit.
