National WWI Memorial Sculptor Sabin Howard Challenges Americans to Reclaim the Meaning of Liberty

National World War I Memorial sculptor Sabin Howard addresses the Steamboat Institute’s 18th Annual Freedom Conference in Beaver Creek, Colorado, on August 28, 2026, discussing liberty, civic memory and America’s next 250 years.

Sculptor Sabin Howard speaks at the Steamboat Institute’s 18th Annual Freedom Conference as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary. Howard challenged Americans to actively preserve and carry forward the principles of liberty.

Sabin Howard, creator of A Soldier’s Journey at the National World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C., draws on the experience of creating the landmark sculpture during his address at the Steamboat Institute Freedom Conference.

Sabin Howard addresses the Steamboat Institute’s 18th Annual Freedom Conference in Beaver Creek, Colorado, during a presentation tracing the creation of A Soldier’s Journey and the vision leading to the Grand Liberty Arch.

WWI Memorial sculptor Sabin Howard challenges Americans to carry liberty forward as he presents the Grand Liberty Arch for America’s next 250 years.

BEAVER CREEK, CO, UNITED STATES, August 28, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Sabin Howard, sculptor of A Soldier’s Journey, the monumental bronze centerpiece of the National World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C., challenged Americans to reclaim their individual role in preserving liberty during an address today at the Steamboat Institute’s 18th Annual Freedom Conference in Beaver Creek, Colorado.

As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Howard argued that liberty cannot survive as an inheritance alone. It must be understood, exercised and passed deliberately from one generation to the next.

“No society inherits liberty automatically,” Howard said. “Liberty must be cultivated, protected, practiced, and played forward.”

Howard grounded that argument in his own experience creating A Soldier’s Journey, the 58-foot, 38-figure bronze composition at the National World War I Memorial. Awarded the commission in 2015, Howard spent more than nine years bringing the work from concept to completion, through an exacting federal approval process and the physical demands of creating one of the largest figurative bronze compositions of its kind.

“There was no other option,” Howard recalled of the years when completion of the memorial was far from certain. “There were no other roads. There was no Plan B.”

A Soldier’s Journey was unveiled in Washington in September 2024. Howard described the work not as a monument to his achievement, but as an homage to sacrifice, courage and what he called “the heroic nature of the American spirit.”

The experience also sharpened his conviction that societies depend upon the stories they choose to preserve.

“We must maintain those stories that unify us and bring us together,” Howard said. “It is what makes us whole. It is what grounds us. And it is what defines us. We must steward and pass that on to our next generation.”

That conviction now drives Howard’s next monumental undertaking: the Grand Liberty Arch, a planned 60-foot-long, 38-foot-tall bronze monument featuring 56 figures and conceived to commemorate 250 years of American liberty while looking toward the nation’s next 250 years.

The 56 figures symbolically honor the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, but Howard said the monument is ultimately about the Americans who inherit the freedoms those signers helped establish.

“They represent each of us,” he said. “They represent the everyman who inherits that promise.”

At the center of Howard’s vision is a reimagining of Lady Liberty. Rather than standing apart from history on a pedestal, she moves through the monument as an active presence in the American story.

“Lady Liberty is no longer on a pedestal,” Howard said. “She is now amongst us — pulling us forward.”

Howard also described the Grand Liberty Arch as an educational project designed to make history participatory. His vision includes young people from across the country serving as docents, using primary sources to interpret the events and ideas represented in the monument.

“When a young docent steps out and orates, the monument awakens; the scene acquires a narrator; the past gains a heartbeat,” Howard said.

For Howard, the larger purpose is to close the distance between Americans and their history — and between the idea of liberty and the individual choices required to sustain it.

“History is not made by abstract ideas,” Howard said. “History is made by people and liberty itself is never an abstraction. It lives — or dies — in the choices human beings make.”

He closed his address by turning that responsibility directly toward the audience.

“Each one of you is the solution. Each one of you is the keystone that holds that Arch together, that holds our country together,” Howard said.

“This is my gift to my country to celebrate 250 years of liberty. I ask all of you — stand with me. Take ownership of this mission.”

The Steamboat Institute’s 18th Annual Freedom Conference is being held August 28 in Beaver Creek, Colorado. The organization’s work centers on defending liberty and promoting America’s founding principles.

About Sabin Howard

Sabin Howard is an American sculptor internationally recognized for large-scale figurative work rooted in the traditions of Western art. He is the sculptor of A Soldier’s Journey, the monumental 38-figure bronze centerpiece of the National World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C. The work tells the story of an American soldier through departure, battle, loss and homecoming and was unveiled at the memorial in September 2024.

Howard’s next major undertaking is the Grand Liberty Arch, a monumental 56-figure work conceived to commemorate 250 years of American liberty and carry its story forward for future generations.

Official Website: SabinHoward.com
Instagram: @sabinhowardsculpture

About the Grand Liberty Arch

The Grand Liberty Arch is a planned 60-foot-long, 38-foot-tall monumental bronze arch by Sabin Howard. Through 56 figures and a narrative spanning American history, the work is conceived as both an enduring civic monument and an educational experience connecting future generations with the principles, people and events that shaped the American experiment.

Official Website: GrandLibertyArch.com

Traci L. Slatton
Sabin Howard Sculpture LLC
+1 917-701-0578
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