Past Grounds4Art Projects

Nourishment, Education and Social Terraces (NEST) is a multi-campus public art initiative created by artist Tory Tepp that transformed sections of the HCC Dale Mabry and Ybor City Campuses into socially activated green spaces. Utilizing social practices while capitalizing on a local community’s assets and potential, NEST aims to empower creative solutions for addressing issues of food insecurity, sustainability and inclusion through the creation of accessible spaces to gather, interact, teach and entertain one another.

As a creative placemaking project, NEST included broad-spectrum public input during a research and design phase in the fall of 2020, leading to a fabrication phase the following spring with the support of nearly 100 community volunteers. The NEST site at the HCC Dale Mabry Campus features a distinct in-the-round design, with a central raised dais flanked by organically shaped earthen berms and circular tables tiled with the phases of the moon. At the HCC Ybor Campus, the NEST site re-imagines existing architectural features to create a proscenium stage, tiered earthen seating, and a mosaic of ceramic tiles designed by diverse Tampa Bay artists. At the project’s unveiling in April 2021, the NEST sites hosted performances by campus groups such as music, dance, and theatre as well as by local organizations like Tampa Homegrown. Today, the spaces are home to over 300 individual plants from more than forty different species—such as Muscadine Grape, African Blue Basil, Sunshine Mimosa, White Jade Pineapple, Butter Cream Mango, Pomegranate, and Tropical Milkweed, among others—and can be utilized as outdoor classrooms, performance venues, and gathering spaces.

Watch this video to learn more about the project.

For more information about reserving these public art sites for performances or events, please contact Amanda Poss (aposs@hccfl.edu). 

About the Artist: Tory Tepp received his under-graduate BFA in painting from Parson’s, the New School for Design in New York City and an MFA in 2009 as part of the inaugural class of Suzanne Lacy’s Public Practice program at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. There he developed his practice around the exploration and reestablishment of the metaphysical connections between the social and environmental ecologies that shape urban communities. Tepp has completed projects all over the U.S., including New Orleans, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Death Valley, the High Sierra Mountains, New Smyrna Beach, Tampa, and the Wormfarm Institute in Wisconsin. 

Contributors: This project is made possible with the support of: The Gobioff Foundation Treasure Tampa Grant, The Stanton Storer Embrace the Arts Foundation, HCC Dale Mabry Campus Student Government Association, HCC Foundation, and Tempus Projects.

Project Partners: On behalf of the HCC Public Art Committee, Grounds4Art also recognizes our project partners: Hillsborough Arts Council, Feeding Tampa Bay, HCC Foundation, Rooted Resistance, Tampa Bay Businesses for Culture & the Arts, and Tempus Projects.

Created by artists Jay Giroux and Edgar Sanchez Cumbas, Living Shades is HCC’s fifth public art project and the largest mural to-date for the Ybor City Campus. The mural is replete with references to Ybor City: a cast-iron street lamp, a close-up of trolley doors, the distinct medieval tower of the Castle nightclub, a portrait of Lady Columbia for the Columbia Restaurant (the oldest restaurant in Florida), and images of Ybor’s iconic roosters. Each symbol provides a colorful and layered view into the city’s distinctive attributes and history. The artists also celebrate the diverse cultural heritage of the district, found in imagery such as a portrait of Cuban poet José Martí (1853-1895), who gave many impassioned speeches for Cuban Independence to cigar workers in Ybor City, as well as a large blind contour drawing referencing the immigrant family sculpture (created by Steve Dickey in 1992) in Centennial Park. Floral and organic imagery found within the design likewise reference the nearby public art project NEST, also created in the spring of 2021, by artist Tory Tepp.

Woven together with a hexagonal pattern attributed to the pavers that line Ybor City’s sidewalks in the historic district, the mural’s composition also alludes to the legacy of the college’s visual arts program. Certain stylistic and symbolic elements layered within the mural were inspired in part by the creativity and passion of former HCC faculty and community artists who had a transformative influence on the visual arts at the HCC Ybor City Campus, especially Suzanne Camp Crosby (1948-2020), Carolyn Kossar (1949-2020), and Theo Wujcik (1936-2014).   

Artists Jay Giroux and Edgar Sanchez Cumbas have each completed numerous projects in the public realm. Recent collaborative commissions include the Countable and Uncountable Stories of Rob City (2018) mural in Julian B. Lane Park created for the City of Tampa Public Arts Program. Jay Giroux (b. 1979 in Vermont) is an artist, designer, and educator whose paintings involve a continued exploration of incidental gestures and lowbrow symbolism culled from the urban streetscape. Giroux received his MFA in 2011 from the University of Houston and is a student of the late Theo Wucjik. Edgar Sanchez Cumbas (b. 1971 in Puerto Rico) is an artist and educator whose work explores themes of identity, cultural and visual transitions, and contemporary abstract expressionism. Cumbas received his MFA in 2013 from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

This project was made possible with the support of: HCC Ybor City Campus Student Government Association and the HCC Ybor City Visual and Performing Arts Department. 

Inspired in part by the creation of a food relief program for HCC’s campuses, Grounds4Art commissioned Argentine-American artist Cecilia Lueza to create a large-scale mural focused on addressing issues related to food insecurity, mental and emotional health, and social and cultural inclusion. Designed with community feedback, Exuberance projects an image of inner strength and well-being. Showcasing Lueza’s trademark exploration of the visual effects of color and geometric abstraction, the mural prominently features a portrait of a young woman in profile. With outstretched arms and her gaze lifted to the skies, the figure imparts a sense of dynamic energy and hopefulness that parallels the community’s desire for perpetual growth and positive social change.

Lueza has worked on a variety of site-specific and public art projects in cities throughout the United States since 2000. Her work has been exhibited at Art Miami, Arteamericas, and Scope Miami Beach, and she has completed public art pieces in Washington D.C., Jacksonville, FL, West Palm Beach, and St. Petersburg, FL, among others. Lueza’s artwork can be found in public and private collections throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America.

Contributors: This project was made possible with the support of: The Arts Council of Hillsborough County and The Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners, HCC Dale Mabry Campus Student Government Association, Bay Art Files, and an Anonymous donor (in memory of Mary F. and Herbert O. Brennan).

Project Partners: On behalf of the HCC Dale Mabry Public Art Committee, Grounds4Art also recognizes project partners: Bay Art Files, City of Tampa, Arts & Cultural Affairs, Feeding Tampa Bay, and HCC Food Education Depot (FED).