Statue of Responsibility unveiled

Tiffany Frandsen | Deputy Managing Editor | @Tiffany_mf

 

The new statue just outside of the east entrance of the Losee Center is a tribute to a concept from Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl, called the Statue of Responsibility. The 15-foot statue of two vertically gripped hands was unveiled on April 15 with sculptor Gary Lee Price, Chair of the Statue of Responsibility Foundation Nancy O’Reilly, UVU President Matthew S. Holland and students in attendance.

The statue is two hands to represent the need for students to be “responsible for each other,” said Price.

The original idea of the statue of responsibility was written about by Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl in his book “Man’s Search For Meaning.”

“Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast,” said Frankl in Man’s Search For Meaning.

Price was commissioned in 1997by the statue’s foundation, who met with Frankl’s widow, Elly Frankl, to get her blessing for the sculpture.

The statue at UVU is a prototype; the Statue of Responsibility Foundation has plans for a second statue; a 300-foot-tall stainless steel monument on the West Coast that will serve as a bookend for the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast.

“We’re honored to have this inspiring piece of art on our campus. It symbolizes the idea of responsibility and the importance of reaching out, joining together and helping others,” said Holland, in a press release.

UVU was chosen as the location of the statue because of the high number of visitors that come to the campus.