Opening Reception JUAN WILLIAM CHÁVEZ: ART POLLINATION and LUCA MOLNAR

Next date: Friday, October 10, 2025 | 05:30 PM to 08:00 PM

You're Invited

 

Opening Reception 

Friday October 10, 2025

Members Only Preview

5:30 - 6:30 PM

Free Public Reception 

6:30 - 8:00 PM

 

Spoken Word Performance by Shawn Welcome, Poet Laureate Emeritus, City of Orlando 

Music by DJ Tvel

Catering by Hebni Nutrition, Inc

Cash Bar

Art Pollination Ice Cream by Smile Ice Cream and Black Bee Honey 

 

JUAN WILLIAM CHÁVEZ: ART POLLINATION

This exhibition is part of the City of Orlando’s 2025 Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge project, Art Pollination, which aims to use art to raise awareness about food insecurity and promote solutions. Juan William Chávez: Art Pollination presents the social practice of artist Juan William Chávez, rooted in a holistic view of aesthetics, ecology, ritual, craft, labor, activism, and his Peruvian heritage. Art Pollination is a multi-media installation featuring drawings, embroidery, zines, artifacts, and ephemera that reflect a specific archaeology of place and how that place mines creativity through the cross-pollination of art and ideas. At the museum, Chávez has created new paintings, drawings, ephemera, and sculpture over the last two years based on community collaboration that integrates aesthetics, garden cultivation, indigenous thought, and local histories to address themes related to accessing healthy food, food sovereignty, and the environment.

The concept of creative art pollination is deeply rooted in Chávez's practice and within the City of Orlando community. This collaborative public art project highlights the significant efforts being made to alleviate food insecurity. Working together over the last year, creatives learned from and highlighted key local non-profit partners Black Bee Honey, 4Roots, Hebni Nutrition Consultants, Inc., Ideas for Us-Fleet Farming, Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, and the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS), Orange County. The grant further supports local artists’ initiatives and art installations at various locations, including murals, garden beds, urban trail markers, community billboards in partnership with the Mennello Museum of American Art, Downtown Arts District, FusionFest, and Terrace Gallery, City Hall. The project aims to harness the transformative power of public art to spark conversations and collaborations that can lead to innovative solutions for addressing food insecurity, thereby significantly impacting the City of Orlando. To learn more, visit orlando.gov/artpollination.

JUAN WILLIAM CHÁVEZ: ART POLLINATION is organized in conjunction with and in support of the City of Orlando’s Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge
Award for Art Pollination, 2023-2025.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT
The Mennello Museum of American Art and its exhibitions and programs are generously supported by the City of Orlando and the Friends of the Mennello Museum of American Art. Orange County Government provides additional funding support through the Arts & Cultural Affairs Program and United Arts of Central Florida.

Opening Reception funded in part by Apenberry's Gardens.

 

 

LUCA MOLNAR: WORKER BEES

Luca Molnar's Worker Bees is part of Art Pollination, a public art project in Orlando supported by the Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge, that aims to address food insecurity through art installations and community engagement. Molnar’s new work, Worker Bees, highlights Florida’s role as the United States' “Winter Garden,” emphasizing the importance of citrus, sugarcane, tomatoes, and other produce in Florida’s economy and culture. Molnar developed the new mural, which references the honeycomb structure of beehives commonly found in quilt patterns, as a metaphor for memorial and community quiltmaking that projects a composition of solidarity. It honors farm workers and advocates who fight for better conditions and rights. Molnar’s vibrant tapestry combines education, reporting, labor organizing, legal advocacy, ministry, and art activism to show how food justice can be built collaboratively.

Additional support for Luca Molnar's Worker Bees mural and Museum Garden is generously provided by Commissioner Robert F. Stuart, Orlando District 3.

 Museum Garden by Fleet Farming | Ideas For Us

 

When

Location

Mennello Museum, 900 E. Princeton Street, 32803, View Map