Installation of Statue of José Martí in Central Park

In 1958, the U.S. sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington proposed to the City of New York the idea for a monumental bronze sculpture of José Martí at Dos Rios to be fabricated and installed at the foot of Central Park in a place reserved for sculptures of heroes of Latin American liberation. It was her intention that the sculpture be presented to the people of New York as a gift, not from the sculptor herself, but from the government of Cuba.The City of New York enthusiastically agreed.

In 2015, following the decision of President Castro and President Obama to renew relations between our two countries, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, a community-based international contemporary arts museum in New York City, with a long history of cultural exchange with Cuba, began an initiative to reproduce the original sculpture to present to the people of Cuba as a gesture of enduring friendship between our two nations.

Again working in close cooperation with the City of New York, the Museum created the Friends of José Martí Sculpture Project and began the process of producing an accurate, full-size bronze reproduction of the sculpture to present to the Office of the Historian in Havana, as a gift from the people of the U.S. to the people of Cuba. The process of fabrication is ongoing, with an anticipated completion and installation in Old Havana in spring 2017.

As our work continues we will post images and information about this state-of-the art digital fabrication process in a new exhibition.