The Timeline of Liberty is an expansive bronze relief sculpture in three panels, each 7 feet tall and 25 feet wide, spanning 2500 years of human history, from Ancient Greece to the 19th century. The art was commissioned in 2001 as a centerpiece for renovations at Warder Park and throughout the city. Acclaimed Italian sculptor Lorenzo E. Ghiglieri was commissioned to design and install the work, at a cost of over $1 million dollars.
A worthy investment, in Blasterz opinion.
From the Jeffersonville News and Tribune: (
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"Downtown Jeff getting aesthetic upgrade
By LARRY THOMAS Sep 7, 2006
A trio of projects will soon provide downtown Jeffersonville with an aesthetic boost.
City Pride — a beautification committee created by Mayor Rob Waiz shortly after he took office in 2004 — is continuing its work along Court Avenue and Spring Street.
And in October, the unveilings of the newly renovated Carnegie Library and Jeffersonville Township Public Library will add a visual focus that the city’s downtown has never before seen.
“That makes a real statement about the community,” said Tom Lindley, chairman of the Jeffersonville Carnegie Library Foundation. “To me, it shows a community that’s alive; a community that’s trying to get better.”
And city leaders say it already got better this week.
In front of the Carnegie building in Warder Park, sculptor Lorenzo Ghiglieri’s “Timeline of Liberty” was installed on Wednesday. The sculpture, which traces 2,500 years of human liberty from ancient Greece to modernity, was commissioned by Remnant Trust founder Brian Bex.
Ghiglieri’s sculpture includes three panels that are 7 feet tall and 20 feet wide. It will remain under wraps until the Carnegie Library opens.
The ‘Timeline of Liberty’ investment is a $1 million project, Lindley said.
“I think when you look at the overall impact of the Carnegie project, the township library and the overall work of City Pride, you’re going to have a dramatic enhancement of the community, its appearance,” Lindley said.
City Pride has worked to spruce up the city’s downtown since Waiz created the group two years ago. Its projects have included landscaping medians on the west end of Court Avenue, installing welcome signs and landscaping at the city’s entrances and cleaning and maintaining Exit 0, I-65’s interchange at Court Avenue.
While technically a public committee, City Pride receives little money from the city and has completed the majority of its work with volunteer labor and cash and in-kind donations from people and businesses.
“If you care about the appearance of the city, you care about the purpose and the existence of the city,” said City Pride chairwoman Peggy Duffy.
The landscaping of City Hall is a major City Pride project that is on the horizon.
City offices moved from the former City-County Building to 500 Quartermaster Court on Aug. 7, but Duffy recommended waiting until this month to begin landscaping. The August heat, Duffy said, is hard on plants trying to take root.
Landscaping likely will begin next week, Duffy said.
The Jeffersonville Township Public Library — tentatively scheduled to re-open at 211 E. Court Ave. on Oct. 2, following a nearly three-year, $6.1 million renovation — will spend more than $100,000 to landscape its grounds, a new parking lot and its rooftop terrace.
“We’re trying to make or location a point of city pride,” said Bill Bolte, the library’s director. “We would like to be part of the annual garden tour.”
Jeffersonville Main Street Inc. hosts the garden tour each year in mid June.
A block west of the township library, the Carnegie Library is likely to be unveiled Oct. 26, Lindley said. The privately-funded project will become the home of the Remnant Trust, a collection of original and first edition works on liberty and dignity."