On April 17, the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas (MoCAA) will host a project centered on the role of public art in the construction of collective identity, under the direction of artist and curator Carola Bravo, founder of Hartvest Project.
Conceived as a photographic record of works created in South Florida, the exhibition articulates a broad reading of contemporary public art: sculptures, murals, urban interventions, installations, and projects linked to landscape and architecture. More than a typology of formats, what is presented is a constellation of practices that share a common concern: the transformation of space into experience.
The conceptual axis of the exhibition rests on a persistent idea: the shift from “site” to “place.” Occupation alone is insufficient. Character must be established. That character, as the exhibition proposes, emerges from the relationship between history, environment, use, and architectural context. Public art, in this sense, does not limit itself to intervention. It activates. It generates meaning, introduces memory, and establishes connections where there was previously only passage.
The works gathered here share a community-oriented and accessible vocation. They do not operate from institutional distance, but from everyday proximity. They insert themselves into the urban and natural fabric in order to alter the perception of those who inhabit it. In that gesture, they produce more than image. They produce a sense of belonging.
The project also acknowledges the institutional framework that sustains these practices. Initiatives such as Art in Public Places of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, alongside programs in Broward County, Coral Gables, The Bass Museum, Pinecrest Gardens, and other collaborators, demonstrate that public art is not an isolated act, but the result of a cultural infrastructure committed to its social impact.
Ultimately, Sense of Belonging advances a direct proposition: public art does not merely embellish. It constructs citizenship. In its many forms—from sculpture to ephemeral intervention—it enables shared experiences and opens spaces of encounter. Where there was once a point on the map, a place with meaning emerges.
Aligned with a line of work that Carola Bravo has developed through Hartvest Project—where art is understood as a tool for connection between community, territory, and memory—this exhibition is made possible through the collaboration of the Rodriguez Collection and the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas (MoCAA), together with Pinecrest Gardens, Hartvest Project, Miami-Dade County, Art in Public Places of Miami-Dade County, and the Broward County Cultural Division, whose sustained commitment continues to support and expand the reach of public art across South Florida.
