By Ken Valenti

WESTPORT–The dancing children will return to Westport.

“Circle of Peace,” a bronze sculpture that moved from town more than a decade ago, is set to come back soon – and to stand at the Westport Library – thanks to an anonymous donor. 

Created by sculptor Gary Lee Price, the four-foot-high piece is comprised of three life-sized youngsters holding hands and romping in a circle. It stood in front of the international organization Save the Children when that organization was based at 54 Wilton Road, Westport, beginning in the 1970s, Town Curator Kathleen Motes Bennewitz said. In 2014, the Save the Children office moved to Fairfield, and took the sculpture with it.

Bennewitz called it a “joyous piece” of art.

“It shows community,” she said. “It speaks to humanity and connectedness. It speaks to childhood and youth.”

When it returns to town – an exact date is not known – it will stand by the library entrance facing the Levitt Pavilion, near the café. The plan is to move it to the side facing the Saugatuck River when a riverwalk project is completed there.

Bennewitz said the donor asked that it be placed at the library, “where it can be enjoyed by so many children.”

The Board of Selectmen and the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) both voted in recent meetings to accept the donation, which has an estimated value of $50,000. 

“Personally, I love that statue,” said Karen Kramer, a member of the RTM’s Library, Museum and Arts Committee said. “My family lived down that way and every time we passed, I said, ‘Getting home!’ It’s a wonderful statue.

The donor will pay to move the sculpture, install it and clean and maintain it for five years, said town curator Bennewitz. Kramer said the library will provide cement footings for the piece and the Westport Arts Advisory Committee will take over maintenance of it after five years. The final placement of the sculpture is subject to Planning and Zoning approval.

RTM member Louis Mall asked Bennewitz to pass on the panel’s thanks for the gift to the donor.

Leaders of the library were happy to host the artwork. 

“On behalf of the Westport Library, I want to express how honored we are to be the future of Gary Price’s Circle of Peace,” Executive Director Bill Harmer wrote to Bennewitz. “This is a meaningful and powerful work, and its presence at the Library will add a profound artistic and symbolic dimension to our campus. It reflects our shared commitment to community, connection, and the free exchange of ideas.”

Ken Valenti

^{_{A career journalist and lifelong resident of the New York City region, Ken Valenti has enjoyed decades of reporting local, regional and national news in New York and Connecticut. Topics of special interest are development, the environment, Long Island Sound and transportation. When not reporting, he’s always on the lookout for the perfect coffee shop or used book sale.}}