New bronze sculpture in Eden Park will honor Women Veterans who served our country

Those who serve in the U.S. Armed Forces make tremendous sacrifices. They’re separated from family and friends for months-long deployments and committed to years of service, often stationed in remote or inhospitable climates, and face tremendous threat to life and limb when thrust into combat zones. Such harrowing conditions exact heavy tolls on active soldiers, and the adverse effects often linger well after discharge.

For women who’ve served, the challenges grow exponentially. They represent 11.3% of veterans, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, totaling 2.1 million. That represents a significant increase and a growing trend. In 2000, women comprised only 6.3% of veterans; by 2043, women are predicted to make up 17.2% of living veterans. The average age of a female veteran is 52, significantly younger than the overall median veteran age of 62. This equates to more years of potential need for support services to help reacclimate to the civilian world, a new career and family life.

Discouraging statistics highlight the challenges women who’ve served face:

• According to a Service Women’s Action Network survey reported by Valor Healthcare, 49% of female veterans reported being subjected to gender-based bias or sexual harassment or assault which had negatively impacted their mental health.
• The Valor Healthcare survey also reported that women who’ve served in the military are 250% more likely to commit suicide than civilian women.
• The survey additionally found that only 8% of female veterans access Veterans Administration (VA) healthcare, with reports that discrimination and harassment were commonplace.
• The National Veterans Foundation reported a Project Muse study that female veterans were three to four times more likely than civilian women to endure homelessness.
• According to the VA, 24% of female veterans have endured military sexual trauma.

In addition to these real obstacles that women who’ve served face, there’s the intangible yet palpable perception that their contributions are minimized and often overlooked. The archetypal stoic, proud veteran embedded within our collective psyches is invariably male. Also, the lack of a common draft that brought people from all walks of life into the service separates our society into those impacted by family in the military, and those for whom being a solder is an abstraction understood only through often scant media coverage.

Memorials serve a vital function as a touchstone that reminds us of what soldiers sacrifice and veterans have sacrificed. Mere feet away from the stately Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Eden Park, a small plaque was installed in 1985 along a walkway by the Ohio chapter of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America (NSCDA). The NSCDA is an organization founded in 1981 that’s dedicated to historic preservation and advancing understanding of our national past. Although the current plaque is small, it is significant because it was the first memorial in the United States dedicated to women in uniform, predating Washington, D.C. tributes by years.

Recognizing the need to more publicly honor female veterans, the NSCDA has collaborated with 1001 Colors (formerly known as ArtWorks) to develop a plan for a bronze monument that will pay proper homage to the brave women who have served our country. The NSCDA composed the jury, and 1001 Colors facilitated the review process.

After evaluating the qualifications of 66 artists, the jury selected Austen Brantley, a self-taught Toledo-based sculptor with an international portfolio, to craft the sculpture that will celebrate female veterans. As the nation continues the celebration of its 250^th anniversary, the organizations will fittingly reveal Brantley’s decision this coming Veteran’s Day, with plans for the sculpture’s installation on June 12, 2027, which is National Women’s Veterans Day.

NSCDA’s regional chapter maintains two historic properties, the Betts House in OTR and the Kemper Log Cabin, built in Walnut Hills and later relocated to Heritage Village in Sharon Woods. The regional chapter also manages the Cincinnati Art Museum’s Colonial Dame Room. Charlotte Goering, NSCDA’s president, and recording secretary, Kathryn Dierckes, decided the nation’s 250^th birthday dictated prioritizing the construction of a monument that would proudly honor women who’ve served.

“The plaque was the first of its kind nationwide,” Dierckes said. “But the organization had lost records of it. The board and I didn’t know about it.”

Following the 2025 Memorial Day observance at Eden Park, the local Vietnam Veterans chapter approached NSCDA and suggested a larger monument was needed to honor women veterans. Goering appreciated the suggestion and the organization undertook steps to make it happen, approving the motion to proceed with the monument last September.

The contributions of women to the military have been prolific. From battlefield nurses and medics to World War II Navy Signal Corp operators and yeomanettes, plus infinite other roles; their service has been indispensable and meritorious. A Queen City monument honoring women who’ve served was past due. And challenging.

“This process was a learning curve for all of us,” Dierckes said. “We didn’t know the process to have a statue designed and built. We couldn’t have completed the process without them (1001 Colors).”

Entrusted with executing the selection process, 1001 Colors established a five-member jury to select the artist. Many Cincinnatians may think of 1001 Colors as “the mural people,” but the organization contributes in diversified ways to the city’s artistic community, underscored by its June rebranding, including the city’s sculptures and monuments. Liz Miller, 1001 Colors’ senior director of programs, noted that its 2024 unveiling of the organization’s New Monuments Initiative reflects its emphasis on cultivating more inclusive statuary throughout Cincinnati. Miller leaned into her program-management experience and facilitated the reviews, scoring and discussions with the jury.

“The summer mural-painting and apprenticeship program has been our bread and butter, but we want to support the numerous ways artists tell stories,” she said.

1001 Colors’ initial ask to prospective artists requested qualifications that summarized their pertinent experience. Next, jurists winnowed the field through extensive reviews of design proposals that evaluated style, tone, size and budget. Brantley eventually emerged as the strongest candidate.

Miller said one of the most compelling stories she learned about that illustrated the strength and conviction demonstrated by women was the history of the 6888^th Central Postal Directory Battalion. The “Six Triple Eight,” featured in a 2024 Netflix film, did heroic work creating an organizing system sending years of backlogged mail from World War II.

A 30-year-old Detroit native, Brantley discovered his affinity for sculpture as a high-school student at Berkeley High. He credits his ceramics teacher – a class that he admits he signed up for to gain “an easy A” – with recognizing his mastery in fashioning art from clay. Brantley moved to Toledo earlier this year.

“I looked for an art school to attend, but I couldn’t afford it,” he said. “I looked for private lessons, apprenticeship opportunities, and affordable community college to further my skills.”

He looked to crowdsourcing for mentorship and found Facebook friends and groups aligned with his career interests. They invited him to visit their studios, and Brantley credits these opportunities to learn more sculptural techniques with helping further his skills.

Brantley gained a tremendous opportunity when he won the commission to craft a sculpture that honored Viola Liuzzo. Installed in 2023 at a namesake park in Royal Oak, Mich., Liuzzo was a Detroit resident who was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in 1965 when she travelled to Alabama to help register African Americans to vote.

Since that pivotal project, Brantley’s work has featured several pieces of public artwork with a common throughline: resilience, particularly from a feminine perspective. His sculpture, “Mother and Child,” installed last year alongside the Starkweather Creek Bridge in Madison, Wis., depicts a mother embracing her infant child. “The Path,” installed on the campus of East Tennessee State Univ. in Johnson City, honors the first five African American students at that school, including two women, Elizabeth Watkins Crawford and Mary Luellen Owens Wagner.

“I have a lot of strong women in my life, and I’ve worked to be observant of their strength,” he said. “It’s really about showcasing the warrior in everyday women.”

To devise his concept, which will feature life-size figures that depict female soldiers  ranging from the Civil War era to modern times, Brantley extensively reviewed historical paintings and texts that conveyed the work and lives of female soldiers. He said it was remarkable to discover the far-reaching, albeit often anonymous, roles that women have played serving in or supporting the military.

“It was very challenging to distill well over a century of compelling stories into these figures,” Brantley said.

To date, approximately $250,000 has been raised for the Women’s Veterans Memorial project, and fundraising is ongoing. Anyone who wishes to support the memorial’s construction and installation can make a financial contribution at NSCDA Ohio.

Gifts may be made in honor or memory of a special person, and donors making gifts of $5,000 or more will be listed on the memorial’s signage. 

“Forty years from now, most of organization’s members won’t be here,” Dierckes said. “The NSCDA may not be here. But we’re proud that this sculpture will remain to educate the public about the contributions of female veterans.”