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Medellin Colombia, the City of South Miami’s sister city, will be sending more artwork soon to grace the Colombia Sculpture Garden. City Commissioner Josh Liebman has been coordinating the project.
“I’ve been trying to raise the bar in South Miami,” says Liebman, “I championed all the signage, the street signs, the welcome signs, the city logo, the revitalization of all of our parks. I also wanted to establish a sister city program. South Miami is about a hundred years old and we’ve never had a sister city program in the history of South Miami. I was able to establish a sister city program with Medellin, Colombia. People don’t realize this but Colombia is the U.S.’s number one ally in South and Central America. The optics of Medellin may scare some cities away from a sister city program, but today Medellin is recognized by the Wall Street Journal as the most innovative city in the world.”
Liebman points out that Medellin received the international environmental Green Award and was ranked by Conde Nast in 2020 before COVID as the hottest city to visit, as well as receiving honors from Time Magazine and others.
“As a result of the sister city program I had the president of Colombia (Iván Duque Márquez) come to the park to create Colombia Sculpture Garden,” says Liebman. “It’s the first time in a hundred years that our city has had a visit from a president, foreign or domestic. Following President Duque’s visit I had the installation of three sculptures from Colombian artists. It’s one of the best things we’ve ever done for the city. The response has been incredible.”
The COVID-19 pandemic stalled things, but now that the lockdowns are starting to end there are a number of new sculptures that are on the way.
“I was meeting with a Colombian art collector and he’s the second largest collector of Fernando Botero sculptures,” said Liebman. “So he will contribute two Boteros on loan to the park and will rotate those with others. He also contributed a 12 foot Edgar Negret sculpture.”
At a meeting in Medellin at a Duque Arango gallery, Liebman was pleased that the gallery owners were also donating another Edgar Negret sculpture. He later drove with them to another gallery
that is donating a sculpture by the artist Gustavo Velez, who Liebman says is a high end sculptor exhibited in top galleries around the world, including in the city of Pietrasanta.
“Pietrasanta, Italy is the birthplace of sculpture,” says Liebman. “To be recognized and exhibited in Pietrasanta is to make it as an international sculptor. Gustavo Velez is the youngest sculptor to ever be exhibited in Pietrasanta. And he is one of only three sculptors in all of Latin America to be exhibited. Two are from Medellin, the other is Fernando Botero. The third is a sculptor from Uruguay.”
Liebman met with Gustavo Velez and Velez, who has relatives in the Miami Area, came to South Miami to see the park and said he will design a sculpture specifically for the sculpture garden.
Colombia Sculpture Garden is located at 8700 Red Road, in front of Dante Fascell Park in South Miami.
