Liberty Hill International Sculpture Park facts for kids
The Liberty Hill International Sculpture Park is a cool outdoor art museum in Liberty Hill, Texas. It all started with a special art event in 1976. Today, you can see 27 amazing sculptures there. Artists from six different countries, like France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada, and the United States, created these artworks. Because of this park, Liberty Hill won the first Texas Arts Award for a smaller city in 1977.
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How the Sculpture Park Started
A Big Art Event in Texas
In the early 1970s, a painter and sculptor named Mel Fowler came to Liberty Hill, Texas. He had been to an International Sculpture Symposium in Europe in 1975. A symposium is like a big meeting or workshop where artists create art together. When he came back, Mel Fowler wanted to host the first international sculpture symposium in the southwest United States.
At first, he thought about holding it in Austin, Texas. But a local person from Liberty Hill, James Vaughan, convinced him to bring the event to their small town instead.
In the fall of 1976, Liberty Hill hosted 25 sculptors from six different countries. This was part of the celebration for the 200th birthday of the United States. Many local families opened their homes to the artists, giving them places to stay and food to eat. Local businesses also gave all the materials needed for the sculptures. They mostly used granite, concrete, and steel from the area. The entire event happened without any money from the state or federal government. The sculptures created during this symposium became a park of abstract art in downtown Liberty Hill at Veterans Park.
Finding a New Home
The sculptures stayed in Veterans Park for 10 years. During this time, Mel Fowler tried to raise money to buy a bigger piece of land for them. In the mid-1980s, Don Cunningham, who worked for the Liberty Hill Independent School District, wanted to buy a piece of granite from one of the sculptures. He wanted to use it for a sign for the new high school.
After some talks, the school district decided to take all the sculptures. They planned to use them as part of the landscape around the high school. On May 5, 1987, after a huge effort to move them, the sculptures were officially dedicated at Liberty Hill High School. This school is now Liberty Hill Middle School. It became the only known International Sculpture Park located on school grounds. After the symposium and dedication, several more sculptures were added. These included one by Jim Thomas and three by Mel Fowler, bringing the total to 27 pieces in the park.
What's Next for the Park?
Some of the sculptures are currently being moved from the middle school grounds. They are going to the Lions Foundation Park, which is right next door. This park is managed by the Liberty Hill Development Board. The sculptures will be partly on the school grounds and partly in Foundation Park. There will be a clear walking path connecting all the artworks. A new dedication ceremony for the park was planned for late April 2013.
Artists and Their Sculptures
Below is a list of the sculptors and the art pieces they created for the park in Liberty Hill. The artists are grouped by their home country. Some artists have two countries listed because they lived in more than one place during the symposium. Two of the original sculptures were damaged and no longer exist. Jim Thomas made a sculpture for the dedication in 1987, and Mel Fowler added three pieces after the first big event.
Canada
- Harry Noordhoek (Canada and Italy) - Fluidity
- Bart Shigeru Uchida - Crawling Venus
- Dieter Hastenteufel (Canada and Germany) - Frozen Motion
Italy
- Renato Mari - Faces of the People
France
- Jean Marmorat - Sans Titra
- Jean Paul Philippe - Tirez Moi De La
Germany
- Renata Reck - Evolution No. 2
Japan
- Masayuki Nagase - Lover's Seats
- Mihama Yoshinao - Lotus
U.S.
- Duff Browne - Images
- Catchi - Official Artist of the 1976 Symposium
- Sharon Corgan Leeber - Liberty Couple
- Dolores Cumley - Origin
- Nati Escobedo - Tierra Madre
- David Eugene Everett - Untitled (Destroyed)
- Mel Fowler:
- Liberty Cat
- Libertarian
- Misterio di Vita
- San Francescao
- Brad Goldberg - Guardian
- Mary Paige Huey - Phoenix (Molds were damaged)
- T.J. Mabrey - Untitled
- Ann Merck - Western Vision
- Tom Piccolo - Blanco Mujer
- Copper Rain Ward - Mother's Lap
- Tom Sayre - John's Knot
- Dana Smith - Verdie Vaughan
- Rita Sutcliffe - Night Guardian
- Jim Thomas - Forgotten Ancestors
- Arthur Williams - Space 13
