[nfbwatlk] FW: [Wcb-l] Helen Keller Statue To Be Unvailed At U.S. Capitol NearlyCompleted

Fri Aug 31 10:02:05 CDT 2007

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Subject: FW: [Wcb-l] Helen Keller Statue To Be Unvailed At U.S. Capitol
NearlyCompleted

Keller statue to be unveiled in Capitol nearly completed 8/19/2007, 1:49
p.m. ET By BEN EVANS The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - After a year of delays, plans are moving forward for
an Alabama initiative to put a statue of Helen Keller at her "moment of
epiphany" in the U.S. Capitol.

Gov. Bob Riley and others traveled to Utah this summer to sign off on
the final design of the bronze memorial. They said it could be unveiled
as early as the fall if things move swiftly.

"It is absolutely beautiful," Riley said in an interview after the June
trip. The statue depicts the blind and deaf Keller as a child standing
by the water pump at her home in Tuscumbia, at the moment she solved
what she called "the mystery of language" when her teacher spelled out
the word water in her hand while pumping water over her other hand.

Officials initially planned a June 2006 unveiling of the statue, but the
project was held up as a state committee overseeing it debated how to
best capture Keller's facial expression and how to portray her eyes.

Also, a congressional committee that oversees artwork in the Capitol
requested minor changes in the original design, said Al Head, executive
director of the Alabama State Council on the Arts. The original version
contained extensive narrative about Keller at the statue's base, and the
congressional committee wanted a simpler style consistent with others in
the Capitol, with only basic information such as her name and home
state. The committee also asked to remove decorative ivy that the artist
depicted growing around the water pump.

"This could be in the Capitol for 50 or 100 years, so we want it to be
as perfect as possible," Riley said.

Each state has two statues in the Capitol as part of the National
Statuary Hall Collection. Keller's statue would be the first of a
disabled American and the first of a child, Alabama officials say. The
design also includes braille characters.

The monument would replace an existing statue of Jabez Lamar Monroe
Curry, a former congressman, Confederate general and professor who was a
longtime advocate of free universal education. Curry's statue has been
in the Capitol since 1908. The state's other statue, installed in 1925,
is of Joseph "Fighting Joe" Wheeler, an officer in the Confederate Army
and later the U.S. Army.

Head said the final design has been submitted to Congress, which is in
recess until early September. Once the committee signs off on it, the
statue will be sent to the foundry for casting, a process that will take
about six weeks. After that, it's a matter of scheduling a public
ceremony with congressional leaders, Head said.

The Keller statue, made by renowned sculptor Edward Hlavka, was paid for
by private donations. The project will cost about $275,000, Head said.

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