Sculptor unveils model of Helen Keller statue for Alabama State Capitol

Jay Warren, Oregon-based sculptor, poses for a photo with a working model of the Helen Keller statue on the Alabama Women's Tribute Statue Commission virtual meeting on May 14, 2024. (Screenshot/Alabama Reflector)

A sculptor Tuesday unveiled a working model of a statue of disability rights advocate Helen Keller planned for the grounds of the Alabama State Capitol.

Jay Warren, an Oregon-based sculptor, showed the statue at a meeting of the Women’s Tribute Statue Commission. The life-size monument features Keller sitting on a bench, holding a book written in Braille with one hand while reaching out with the other, as if feeling something.

Warren said he’ll add clay to the foam armature next, allowing details to be fleshed out.

“Next time I have something to show you, it will all be the same color. All the details will be put in the dress and on the book also,” Warren said.

Warren has designed statues of historical figures around the country, including Rosa Parks; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Congressman John Lewis and Medgar Evers in Mississippi. Warren also designed the Emancipation and Freedom Monument in Virginia.

The commission members said they were impressed by the proposal.

“I mean- wow,” said Rep. Laura Hall, D-Huntsville, who chairs the commission.

“Very inspiring,” said Annie Butrus, a Birmingham artist and member of the commission.

Rev. Agnes Lover, a member of the commission, said that she loved that she could see the Braille as well read the inscription on the other side in the book Keller is holding.

The committee also got an update on the plaque that will go on each statue. The commission is considering the other plaques currently on the James Marion Sims, the John Allan Wyeth and the Jefferson Davis sculptures as well as historical language that has been used to describe both women.

The Rosa Parks statue’s plaque was initially envisioned to have her name along with date of birth and death, but the other statues have at least one sentence describing the individual.

“This is definitely the important piece to get right: the language that will be on both signs needs to take into account all the other language that’s been published,” Butrus said.

The commission last year approved a statue of Parks, which will be installed on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol. The statue has been designed by Georgia-based Julia Knight and is in the final stages of construction. Both Parks and Keller’s statues could go up in Montgomery early next year. The commission is currently reviewing bids for the Keller and Parks statue site development.

The statues are expected to cost about $611,000, according to previous projections. The commission has raised about $700,000 for the statues. The remaining amount will be used for site maintenance.

The Alabama Legislature in 2019 approved the installation of statues of Keller and Parks on the Alabama State Capitol grounds, the first women to be so honored.

Parks’ arrest on a segregated Montgomery bus in 1955 sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, considered the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement. Keller, a Tuscumbia native who lost her sight and hearing before her second birthday, became a world-renowned author and advocate for the rights of the disabled.

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