LTC 413-2022 Art in Public Places Committee Motions—September 20, 2022OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
NO. LTC # 413-2022 LETTER TO COMMISSION
TO:
FROM:
DATE:
Honorable Mayor Dan Gelber and Members of the City Commission
Rafael E. Granado, City Clerk
September 27, 2022
SUBJECT: Art in Public Places Committee Motions—September 20, 2022
The purpose of this letter to the Mayor and Commission is to provide an update regarding
two motions made during the September 20, 2022 Art in Public Places (“AIPP”) Committee
meeting.
1. Temporary Public Art Installation – Miami Beach OnStage!
FriendsWithYou, Starchild at Harry Liebman Square (41st Street and Pinetree Drive)
Motion to commission Starchild by FriendsWithYou as part of the Miami Beach OnStage!
temporary public art initiative.
The above motion was approved unanimously.
The Miami Beach OnStage! program has previously commissioned two temporary works
of public art, including Carlos Betancourt’s Milagros! and FriendsWithYou’s Little Cloud
Sky for the Española Way corridor. For its third and final commission, the program will
unveil its largest project to date, a monumental figurative sculpture for the 41st Street
Corridor. Starchild, a new character in the oeuvre of FriendsWithYou, is a symbol of light,
power, and nature.
FriendsWithYou is the art collaboration of Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III,
created with the intention to bring more joy, kindness, and love to the world. The
collaboration is a vehicle for the exploration of emotional healing through culture creation
and art making. Each work is created with the intention of transcendence, and nurturing
care for the viewer or participant. FriendsWithYou’s meaning is in its name, in that
everything in the universe can and wants to be friends with you, an aide in the promotion
of love, harmony & peace in our lives. “Our goal is to connect and heal as much as possible
through our work, to grow the love and joy in each person, creating an exponential
aggregate of sharing, healing, and compassion for each other and our living planet”, state
the artists.
2. Temporary Public Art Installation on Española Way- “Elevate Española”
Edouard Duval Carrie, Trapeze Contortionists
Motion to commission artist Edouard Duval Carrie’s proposal, Trapeze Contortionists, as
a temporary public art installation for Elevate Española.
The above motion was approved unanimously.
Due to the success of FriendsWithYou’s Little Cloud Sky (2021), commissioned through
the Miami Beach OnStage! program, the Española Way corridor will once again welcome
a temporary public art project for Art Week Miami Beach 2022. Opening on November 28,
2022, Trapeze Contortionists will feature Parisian inspired contortionists suspended from
the sky, playfully performing acrobatic stunts above Española Way.
Artist Rendering 1
Edouard Duval-Carrié (b. 1954, Port-au-Prince) is a Haitian sculptor and painter, who was
educated at McGill University and at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in
Paris. Inspired by Haitian traditions, Duval-Carrié creates works that speak to the
complexities of the Caribbean and its diaspora. Selected solo exhibition include “Imagined
Landscapes,” Pérez Art Museum Miami (2014); Roots & More, Afrika Museum, Berg en
Dal, Holland (2009); “Edouard Duval-Carrié, The Glass Curtain Gallery,” Columbia
College, Chicago (2007); “The Voodoo Pantheon,” and The Bass Museum of Art, Miami
Beach (2006). His work has been included in critically acclaimed group exhibitions such
as in “Extermis, Museé de la civilization,” Québec City, Québec (2013); “Who More Sci Fi
Than Us?” Contemporary Art from the Caribbean, Kunsthall KAdE, Amersfoot,
Netherlands (2012); “Caribbean: Crossroads of the World,” The Studio Museum of
Harlem, New York (2012); First Haitian Pavilion, 54th Venice Biennale, Palazzo Stamplia
Querini, Venice (2011); and The Patricia & Philip Frost Art Museum, Miami (2010). Duval-
Carrié lives and works in Miami
Members in attendance: Marcella Novella (Chair), Michael McManus(Vice-Chair), Nick
D’Annunzio, Leilani Lynch, Aaron Resnick, and Yolanda Sanchez.
For more information, please contact Lissette Garcia Arrogante, Director, Tourism and
Culture at lissettearrogante@miamibeachfl.gov or x26597.
cc: MM/LGA/FV/BR