Willie Cole’s Liberty Lantern is a compelling sculptural work that transforms ordinary everyday objects into extraordinary artwork. The piece is composed of repurposed plastic water bottles, each containing an image of the Statue of Liberty. This repeated motif not only pays homage to a national symbol of freedom but also questions its meaning through multiple lenses of environmentalism, consumerism, and identity. The water bottle, a ubiquitous, disposable object, becomes a vessel of cultural reflection through this piece.

While the water bottles form the most prominent aspect of Liberty Lantern, the work belongs to a broader practice in which Cole repurposes “found objects” such as worn shoes, bicycle parts, and broken musical instruments. These materials, once discarded, are reimagined as part of intricate, sometimes chandelier-like forms.

“The struggle between beauty and ugliness is embedded in my chandeliers: trash as treasure as teacher… it’s not always easy to open up perception and see familiar objects in a fresh way.”

Willie Cole is a contemporary American artist known for transforming everyday found objects—such as irons, shoes, bicycles, and water bottles—into powerful sculptures that explore themes of African American identity, consumerism, and cultural memory. Drawing inspiration from traditional African art, his work blends history with symbolism and reuse. Cole has exhibited widely since the 1990s, and his pieces are held in major museum collections including The Met, MoMA, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

In January 2024, the Child Mind Institute moved its headquarters to a new 82,000-square-foot space in Midtown Manhattan. From the beginning, our new home was envisioned not only as a place for clinical care and research, but as a space that feels comforting, human, and inviting for children, teens, and their families. In order to support this vision, CMI established a comprehensive Art Program to foster meaningful engagement between our patients and the artwork around them. Through a thoughtfully curated permanent collection and integrated installations, the program helps create an environment that is stimulating, flexible, and collaborative —a space where we will help tens of thousands of children from 49 states, Washington, DC, and 45 nations over the coming decades and inspire current and future scientists to change the child mental health field as we know it. We hope that the digital archive will give patients and their families further opportunity to explore the collection and learn more about the talented artists that have contributed to our space.