Gary Lee Price
Gary Lee Price is a sculptor whose work is in private and public collections internationally. One of the largest libraries in the world, the Hong Kong Central Library, 12 stories high, 300,000 square feet, features 12 of Gary Lee Price’s life-size bronze sculptures. He was commissioned to create the 12-foot angel “Messenger” monument in Iceland honoring over 400 early immigrants to the United States.
In 1991 Price was elected a member of the National Sculpture Society and later elected by his peers as a Fellow of this prestigious organization. In November 2001, he received the "Governor's Mansion Artist Award," from Governor Michael Leavitt of Utah, for his support of the arts. Price earned a BFA degree from the University of Utah, studying painting, drawing, and anatomy under Alvin Gittins and Stan Johnson. He also studied at Ricks College and Utah Technical College, now Utah Valley University, and studied in Jerusalem for six months through Brigham Young University’s Study Abroad program.
He is the creator of the Statue of Responsibility, a 305-foot statue that may find a home in Utah. Stephen R. Covey was instrumental in introducing Price to the Statue of Responsibility. Dr Covey was a friend and colleague of holocaust survivor, Viktor E. Frankl, author of Man's Search for Meaning. Covey made a commitment to Frankl to make sure that Frankl's vision of a Statue of Responsibility, a 21st century symbol to the relationship between liberty and responsibility, on the West coast would one day "bookend" the Statue of Liberty on the East coast. Price holds the trademarks and copyrights, and is the official sculptor for this project. Originally, an effort was made to place it in California or Washington State.
Steve Cohen, president and CEO of the Statue of Responsibility Foundation, said the foundation is working toward what he called “provisional approval” for the monument. In total, it would cost around $300 million, he said. “We are looking to raise that money with people of high net worth, foundational money, international money, but we absolutely and positively guaranteed the Utah Legislature no public money. None.”[1]
Price was born in 1955. He and his wife, Leesa, are the parents of nine children and live in Arizona. He is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
