How We Curate Public Art
Fung Collaboratives has spent more than three decades producing exhibitions that place contemporary art in public settings across the United States, Europe, and Asia. Our curatorial work begins with a simple question: how can a specific place, its history, and the people who pass through it shape what artists create? That question guided projects from Atlantic City's Artlantic to Coral Gables' Illuminate and our current initiative, Constellations.
Return to the Fung Collaboratives homepage for featured projects, news, and current exhibitions.
Site Selection and Artist Commissions
Every exhibition starts with walking the terrain. Curator Lance Fung and the Fung Collaboratives team study architecture, pedestrian routes, lighting conditions, and local history before inviting artists to respond. Commissions are rarely one-size-fits-all. For Illuminate Coral Gables, eight projects included new site-specific works designed for outdoor plazas, building facades, and city landmarks. Artists ranged from internationally recognized figures to emerging voices working in the region.
The same site-first approach shaped earlier programs such as Harambee in New York and Wonderland, USA in San Francisco. In each case, the artwork was conceived for a particular neighborhood context rather than adapted from a gallery model.
Collaboration and Production
Public art at this scale requires close coordination between artists, fabricators, city agencies, and community partners. Fung Collaboratives manages production timelines, permitting, and installation logistics so artists can focus on the creative work. Our community page lists the curators, producers, and staff who support each exhibition from concept through opening day.
Educational programming runs alongside the physical installations. Talks, guided walks, and printed materials give visitors context for the work they encounter. When Forbes and Architectural Digest covered Illuminate Coral Gables in 2021, both publications noted how the outdoor format allowed tens of thousands of people to experience contemporary art safely during the pandemic.
What Visitors Can Expect
Fung Collaboratives exhibitions are free and open to the public. Most projects are designed for both daytime viewing and evening experiences where light, projection, or sculpture transforms after dark. Past programs have drawn visitors on foot, by bicycle, and by car through mapped routes that connect multiple installation sites.
To explore our full exhibition history, visit the Projects page. For press materials, publication catalogs, or partnership inquiries, see Press and Contact.
