We all know the Statue of Liberty. But do you know the Statue of Responsibility?
When complete, the 305-foot monument will stand on America’s West Coast as the bookend to the Statue of Liberty in New York. American sculptor Gary Lee Price, 71, is the one tasked with bringing this long-unrealized dream to life.
Its design shows two massive hands clasped in a gesture of mutual accountability. This concept traces back to Viktor Frankl, the Austrian neurologist who was imprisoned in Nazi-occupied Germany and went on to become an eminent thinker and author on the topic of finding meaning and fortitude amid suffering. He also warned Americans against the perils of pursuing unbridled freedom without the counterpart that holds a peaceful liberty in place: responsibility.
Frankl proposed a counterpart to Lady Liberty in his 1946 book “Man’s Search for Meaning,” and today, Price and his wife, Leesa Clark-Price, serve as the driving force behind this ambitious mission. “Responsibility begins right here,” Leesa said, pointing to herself. “It’s not a handout. It’s a hand up.”
Art Became His Lifeline
Price’s path to realizing Frankl’s idea has been shaped by personal hardship and persistence. At age 6, on a U.S. military base in Germany, Price witnessed the murder-suicide of his mother and stepfather. But his nightmare wasn’t over. After that trauma, he was sent back to the United States, where he endured seven years of abuse at the hands of a stepbrother.But his boyhood held bright spots, too: His grade school teachers gave him encouragement he hadn’t experienced anywhere else, especially his third grade teacher Mrs. Sharp. “She changed the trajectory of my life,” Price recalled.
He shifted his focus from his horrific personal traumas to something others could appreciate and enjoy: art. He graduated from the University of Utah in painting and drawing before discovering sculpture. “All of a sudden, it was like a whole world opened up,” he said. “I could get that clay and turn it around and do all sides.”
The Statue of Responsibility found him through author Stephen Covey, who was enthusiastic about Frankl’s idea. On Frankl’s deathbed in 1997, Covey promised to find an artist to give visual form to Frankl’s idea. Covey was already a collector of Price’s work, and he approached him with the idea. Eventually, Price created the clasping-hands design, which embodies the message of finding meaning amid suffering.
Sculpture That Invites Connection
Price’s sculptures have always invited interaction. He rejects velvet ropes. Early in his career, he placed signs reading “Please Touch” instead of “Do Not Touch.” Children climb on and visitors sit with his life-sized Great Contributors series—benches affixed with life-sized likenesses of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Tubman, and others. Thanks to this series, whose pieces are located around the country, visitors can sit beside history and feel its humanity. The ring of bronze children that make up his Circle of Peace sculpture leaves a gap so visiting kids can complete the ring by holding hands. Bronze frogs in fountains are worn shiny by generations of small climbers. “Sculpture is meant to touch,” Gary said. “It’s tactile. It involves all your senses, and the more of your senses you can involve, the more it makes an impression on you and touches your soul and your heart.”The Statue of Responsibility will be the ultimate expression of that philosophy, an immersive experience rather than a monument to observe from afar. Visitors will enter through a 360-degree theater that recreates the journey of immigrants arriving at Ellis Island, complete with the sounds of waves and a child’s voice after first spotting the Statue of Liberty. The visuals then sweep across America’s landmarks before the narrative poses the question: “What does responsibility mean to you? What will you leave for the next generation?”
After decades of delay, Frankl’s idea, born out of one of history’s darkest chapters, now stands on the verge of becoming reality. A companion to liberty, long imagined, may soon rise to meet it.
