Rollins Museum of Art Featured in Orlando Magazine
The Rollins Museum of Art has launched its 2026–2027 exhibition season around the central theme of "art that thinks architecturally," treating the built environment as an active creative medium rather than a passive display backdrop.
By Jo Marie Hebeler
September 08, 2026
Led by Bruce A. Beal Executive Director Leslie Anderson, the season serves as both an experimental phase and a conceptual preview of the institution's future as it prepares to open a new purpose-built facility in January 2028. Rather than scaling back operations ahead of the physical move, museum leaders chose to expand programming to engage the public with the creative direction that will define the upcoming venue.
The season opened with The House That Freedoms Built, an outdoor installation by artist La Vaughn Belle. Originally debuted at the Smithsonian Design Triennial, the work examines the historical legacy of colonialism in the Caribbean—specifically St. Croix, a former Danish colony that became a U.S. territory. The installation remains on view through Jan. 3, 2027.
Complementing Belle's work, the museum introduced To Imagine a Home in September. Drawn from the institution's permanent collection, the exhibition expands on thematic elements of belonging, domesticity, freedom, and cultural identity.
In 2027, the museum will feature two immersive building-wide installations:
- Jan. 2027: Norwegian artist Anne-Karin Furunes presents monumental landscapes inspired by scientific photography of the Svalbard archipelago, utilizing light, scale, and perception to transform gallery spaces into interactive environments.
- June 2027: Florida- and Cuba-based artist Lilian García-Roig fills the museum with expansive landscape paintings bridging abstraction and representation, inviting visitors to physically navigate concepts of memory, place, and identity.
According to Anderson, the season encourages patrons to slow down and experience artwork as something to move through and inhabit. By highlighting spatial and environmental themes, the museum aims to offer Central Florida audiences front-row access to the ideas shaping its next chapter.
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