Our mission is to inspire creativity, query, critical thought and engagement through public art.
Vision
The Public Art program at HCC, otherwise known as Grounds4Art, envisions a more vibrant and aesthetically appealing environment for students, faculty, staff and visitors to the College. These creative projects are designed to encourage social activation on campus, serving as informal gathering places for various programs and student life activities.
HCC students should not have to travel to outside museums to have diverse and meaningful experiences with the arts. Specifically designed for the public realm, the Grounds4Art program extends the outreach of HCC’s visual arts programs while also cultivating new audiences.
Get Involved
To contribute to the Grounds4Art program through volunteering or other in-kind services, contact the HCC Art Galleries.
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The HCC Foundation seeks to leverage their commitment of up to $125,000 in establishment of an endowment for public art on the campuses of Hillsborough Community College (HCC). Desired is adollar-for-dollarcommunitymatchinestablishmentoftheendowment’sinitialcorpus.
We sincerely thank the following donors for generously supporting the endowment:
Champions
The Scheneker Family
Advocates
Patrons
Dr. Ginger Clark and Dr. Anna Paula P. da Silva
Peter and Cynthia Zinober
Partners
Tucker Hall
Mary Forrest
Hillsborough Community College and Nagy Philanthropy
HCC is the 2nd largest higher education institution within Tampa Bay serving over 43,000 students across five campuses, MacDill Air Force Base, four collegiate academies in the high schools, as well as an aggressive dual enrollment program with Hillsborough County Schools. Hallmarks of the College include:
Gateway to Higher Ed for the Underrepresented: As a “majority-minority”institution,65%ofthestudentbodyprofileis Hispanic/Latino, Black, or Asian.
ExpansiveWorkforcePrograms:200workforcecredentials to fill the talent pipeline in Tampa Bay including short-termcertificates,associatedegrees,andour1stbaccalaureatedegreeto address the nursing shortage.
LargestTransfertoUSF:HCCisthelargestfeederinstitutionofstudentstotheUniversity of South Florida, including the unique FUSE articulation to grow and accelerate college completion and career advancement.
Drs. Paul and Rebecca Nagy have pledged $450,000 in three philanthropic gifts to elevate HCC’s image as a regional thought leader to increase the social and economic mobility of its diverse student population and propel the labor market economy of Tampa Bay. To that end, in addition to the endowment for public art, thus established are:
WUSF Endowment, Promotion of HCC in Perpetuity: A restricted endowment was established in fall 2022 to promote HCC on WUSF public radio throughout West Central Florida among its unique listener demographic.
IconicPublicSculpture,DialtheSun:Renownedlocalartist,YaLa’ford,wascommissionedto create a public sculpture to inspire students, staff, and faculty to do nothing less than outpace tomorrow. Sited at the new Dr. Gwendolyn Stephenson headquarters of HCC, Dial the Sun sets a standard for subsequent outdoor art to enrich the HCC campuses of Dale Mabry, Ybor City, Brandon, Plant City and SouthShore.
Ya La'ford, Dial the Sun, 2023, installation view
Donating to the Public Art Endowment
All donations are processed through HCC Foundation. Once the donation has been made, please notify us so we can follow-up with the HCC Foundation office to ensure a smooth donation process. All donations are logged by the HCC Foundation, who will then mail a thank-you letter to the donor. This letter can be used as a tax receipt.
Please direct questions and notifications to Amanda Poss, Project Manager for HCC’s public art program, Grounds4Art. aposs@hccfl.edu|813.253.7386
Hillsborough Community College Foundation
4115 N. Lois Ave
Tampa, FL 33614
Next:
Select appropriate donation amount
Under heading “Designation,” select the “Other” from the drop-down menu options. A field will appear below that allows you to manually input the designation for your donation. Enter Drs. Paul & Rebecca Nagy Endowment for Public Artinto the field.
Fill out the rest of the information on the form as directed.
Checks in-hand:
Gallery Director will send to HCC Foundation via courier
Donor Recognition
$500
Your name or logo listed on the Grounds4Art website as a PARTNER
$1,000
Your name or logo listed on the Grounds4Art website as a PATRON
$5,000
Your name or logo listed on the Grounds4Art website as an ADVOCATE
$10,000+
Your name or logo listed on the Grounds4Art website as a CHAMPION
HCC Testimonials in support of Public Art
“Community colleges are essentially commuter institutions. Their varied student bodies often struggle to balance full time work, family, and educational requirements. As a result, students have very little time left to develop the sense of community that develops naturally at non- commuter upper-level institutions. Added to this is the fact is that community colleges often receive bare bones funding... However, pride of place and a sense of community must go hand in hand with academic endeavors.”
– April Muchmore-Vokoun
“Working with Michael Parker on the first mural at HCC taught me leadership skills, how to work as a team, and what goes into making public art... I would love to see more public art projects at HCC and so I would like to motivate other organizations to support public art.”
– MarcMiller,HCCinternationalstudent
“I would love to see more spaces turn into gathering areas for students where they feel warm and welcomed.”