City of Orlando is seeking up to 20 artists for a temporary public art project addressing food insecurity, a serious issue in Orlando who through public art seeks to garner visibility, educate, and cultivate access to healthy, culturally specific food as a human right. The artists sought and their art production will be part of a larger collaboration and public art initiative entitled “Art Pollination: Building Food Justice through Creativity” supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Art Challenge Grant, which was awarded to the City of Orlando for their Art Pollination public art project in 2024-2025.

Artists Award Details

Selected artists will receive a minimum $1,000 stipend for their participation in the project throughout 2025.  The artists will be invited to create new work for participation along the Urban Trail, Community Centers, Food Event Sites, Project Wayfinding, in Urban Billboards, and in two exhibitions, two at Downtown Arts District’s CityArts venue and Terrace Gallery, City Hall, Downtown Orlando. The award provides the following opportunities for selected artists participation:

·        February 2025 – Artists and food partners meet & greet reception to meet each other and learn more about the project. 

·        November 2025 – Jan. 2026 - Terrace Gallery, City Hall, Orlando “Art Pollination Group Exhibition. November 20 – Dec. 14, 2025, CityArts, Downtown Arts District “Art Pollination Group Exhibition.

·        Fall 2025 - Mural opportunities - Some of the selected artists will be invited to create murals in partnership with participating food partners. All materials necessary to create the Artwork shall be provided by the Artists and shall be subject to the prior approval by the Project team before use. 

·        Nov/Dec 2025 Billboard Exhibition, City of Orlando, Urban Corridor Artist’s new work will be displayed on digital billboards.

·        Fall 2025 Other citywide locations TBD.

Project Narrative

The City of Orlando’s project “Art Pollination: Building Food Justice through Creativity” considers public art's viability and value in relation to crisis in food ecology, nature’s pollinators, and labor specific to the nuances our diverse communities and their immediate concerns. In partnership with six significant food partners, global possibilities exist at the confluence of art, activism, and advocacy through a cross-pollination of actions, rooted in generosity, to improve life.

“Art Pollination” is a collaborative public art project in partnership with various local non-profits including, Black Bee Honey, 4Roots, Hebni Nutrition Consultants, Ideas for Us-Fleet Farming, Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, and the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Orange County (UF/IFAS). The grant will further support local artists’ initiatives and programs such as the Downtown Arts District, FusionFest and Snap! Orlando.

As part of the project, the city will work with nationally renowned artist Juan William Chávez, and second juried artist, and feature several specialized areas, including food cultivation, beekeeping and pollinator education, food waste exploration, Augmented Reality [AR] activations, and more. “Art Pollination: Building Food Justice through Creativity” promotes spontaneous public realm engagement and include pollinator plantings, urban trail and billboard artist projects, interactive heritage food sign postings, Augmented Reality [AR] activation stations, and mobile kitchen preservation sessions, strategically placed at public transportation stops, bike paths, and in green networks and parks, all of which creates opportunity for artistic and didactic experience, but also creative wayfinding and placemaking that is anticipated to attract guests from across the state.

Project Goals

Goals of “Art Pollination” is to engage our city’s residents, businesses, and visitors to further unify Orlando, in our current social and political climate, through the healing and transformative power of public art and community gathering.

We aim to raise awareness about cultural food injustice and how art can have a collective impact on shared experiences and promote a message for food justice as a human right.

In dialogue, we will engage and enrich communities with pride, and compassion while supporting national artists at the forefront of creating social art practices and improving life through art.

• Provide wider awareness of the current condition and urgency of food insecurity in Orlando.
• Create space for public art to be a catalyst for change.
• Expand and amplify the reach and impact of “Art Pollination: Building Food Justice through Creativity”.
• Projects that encourage mutual understanding and engagement to maximize awareness and visibility are encouraged.
• Projects open to working across disciplines with outstanding food and local art partners.
• Provide vital support to artists impacting lives and raising civic consciousness about the importance of diverse perspectives in food justice and a healthy community.
• To create an opportunity for communities to appreciate and value temporary public art projects as interwoven into every facet of Orlando community life.
• Through creative placemaking, provide meaningful experiences for our community’s ongoing collective renewal in learning about other cultures’ food relevancy and urgencies.
• Further establish that Orlando leads the nation in its belief that the arts are for all, that they are diverse and experimental, that art is vital to who we are, and that art connects us and feeds us.
• Create safe welcoming environments for engagement, contemplation, and exchange without judgment.

Application Requirements

Topics

Project must be temporary and address the issue of food insecurity and relate to the city of Orlando’s project “Art Pollination: Building Food Justice through Creativity” directly or indirectly. Projects will be structured around and could include, but are not limited to: 

• Nature’s pollinators
• Food and the economy
• Food, gardens, wayfinding, ecology and ecosystems
• Farming, gleaning, distribution

Eligibility Criteria

Artists Selection

This local Central Florida based artists will be selected through a public call for artists and selected by a jury of art professional and curators.