This July, the Rollins Museum of Art (RMA) welcomes The House that Freedoms Built, a monumental outdoor installation by internationally acclaimed artist La Vaughn Belle. On view on the Rollins College campus from July 24, 2026, through January 3, 2027, the work launches a new series of artist installations and interventions exploring architecture and the built environment while inviting audiences to reflect on how spaces shape identity, memory, and community.
Commissioned by Powerhouse Arts and first presented at the 2024 Smithsonian Design Triennial at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, The House that Freedoms Built is being exhibited for only the second time. Inspired by 18th-century houses built by formerly enslaved people on the island of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, the installation consists of three white structures adorned with intricate fretwork patterns rooted in Caribbean architectural traditions. Through these forms, Belle explores the enduring legacy of colonialism while honoring stories of resilience, creativity, and self-determination.
“The House That Freedoms Built asks what it means to inhabit freedom, not as an abstract idea, but as something we negotiate every day through space, through our bodies, and through community,” said Belle. “Like the sculptures themselves, freedom is not solitary. It is something we build in relation to one another. At Rollins, where the museum sits within a living campus, I hope the work sparks questions about how we construct a sense of home and how we come to belong to the places and histories that shape us.”
For the entryway to the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Belle designed three structures inspired by the shapes of 18th-century houses built by formerly enslaved people who negotiated their freedom and were allowed to settle in Christiansted, Saint Croix. The architectural embellishment known as fretwork adorning each structure is a nod to homes in the town of Frederiksted. The community was the site of the 1878 Fireburn rebellion, an important labor revolt that resulted in much of the town being destroyed. Residents added these fretwork designs to their houses during Frederiksted’s reconstruction.
Beginning September 11, 2026, the installation will be presented in conversation with To Imagine a Home, a collection-based exhibition curated by RMA Senior Curator Gisela Carbonell. Featuring works by Allen Fireall, Emilio Sánchez, Pepón Osorio, Yinka Shonibare, Becky Suss, and others, the exhibition examines the many ways we define and experience home. It will also include two newly acquired photographs from Belle’s SWARM series, creating a dialogue between the artist’s sculptural and photographic practices.
“La Vaughn Belle’s work surfaces overlooked narratives and expands our understanding of history while raising important questions about our relationship to objects, places, and the past,” said Leslie Anne Anderson, Bruce A. Beal Executive Director of the Rollins Museum of Art. “The House that Freedoms Built invites our community to pause and reflect on freedom in its many forms—how it is imagined, constructed, and experienced across time and place.”
Together, the installation and exhibition arrive at a meaningful moment for the museum as it prepares for its move to a new facility in 2028. As one of the final major presentations in its current home, the project invites visitors to consider the spaces we inhabit and the stories they hold.
The museum will celebrate the opening of The House that Freedoms Built with a series of public programs. In October, Belle will visit Rollins College for an artist talk to explore themes of architecture, freedom, colonial history, and belonging. Additional gallery talks and public programs connected to To Imagine a Home will provide opportunities for visitors to engage more deeply with the ideas at the heart of the project.
Exhibition Information
La Vaughn Belle: The House that Freedoms Built
July 24, 2026 – January 3, 2027
Outdoor installation, Rollins College campus
To Imagine a Home
September 12, 2026 – January 3, 2027
Rollins Museum of Art
Admission is always free at The Rollins Museum of Art
About the Artist
La Vaughn Belle (b. 1974, Tobago) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands whose work focuses on the often-forgotten colonial narratives embedded in the architecture and material culture of contemporary society. Her practice frequently centers on the Caribbean island of Saint Croix—long claimed as a territory by various European nations, including nearly 200 years as a colony of Denmark, before being sold to the US in 1916 and transferred in 1917.