By Anne W. Semmes
Sterett-Gittings Kelsey is a noted sculptor and Greenwich grown though she makes her creative home in Roxbury where her art is in full display outside her home. But Kelsey has an artistic and patriotic dream embodied in her singularly sizeable bronze seven-foot sculpture of a young angel with wings. She calls it the Freedom Angel.
“This magnificent Angel,” she tells, “beautifully celebrates America, making visible the true adhesive which binds us together as Americans.” She has created it specifically she says, “to celebrate the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of Rights, and the Pledge of Allegiance,” as well as perhaps the cultural heritage unique to each individual state.”
Her argument for the need of such a symbol is, “Nearly 100 percent of the population of the United States has ever actually visited the Statue of Liberty in New York or the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. The Freedom Angel will help educate America’s future generations to understand the meaning of Freedom… to love, protect, honor and cherish their country.”
So, what will that first fully made – and engineered for safety and public use – Freedom Angel cost? $65,000. This price she was able to determine after finding a foundry in Florida that would create it from her digital scan. “Up here they cost $250,000 a piece to cast at the foundry. So, now we’re set up and ready to go. Any state can call in and order their own Freedom Angel at cost, at $65,000.” Whatever state steps up – and she’s hoping Connecticut will step up first – will kick off the Freedom Angel as a global power brand able to be replicated in all 50 states!
The Freedom Angel, in a much smaller version, can be found across the pond in Lockerbie, Scotland. “Her name is Joy,” tells Kelsey, “And she’s 12-inches high.” She was placed as a gift in the memorial garden created for the 271 killed in the terrorist bombing over Lockerbie. “This incident touched me deeply,” she shares. “Most of the children who were killed were from Syracuse University and other schools. I wanted to celebrate the lives of those lost, not their deaths, to bring a bit of comfort to the town.”
Imagine Kelsey’s joy to recently receive that call from London. “It was from a man who was in Parliament,” she tells, “saying that he was interested in having the Freedom Angel to be given to England from America as a nation-to-nation gift, and I’m waiting to hear from him. He was really interested in this. He’s working on it with an American ambassador, and the ambassador for Canada. So, we can just cross our fingers. Who knows?”
Meanwhile she’s got her mind on finding a business professional who can help her market her Freedom Angel as that global power brand! Those interested in that Freedom Angel can contact Sterett-Gittings Kelsey via her website at kelseysculpture.com or call her at 860-350-4938.
