Fall River Native Excited to Witness Placement of New Sculpture at Government Center

One can only imagine the satisfaction of witnessing the culmination of four years' work finally coming into place. That is exactly what happened Monday night for Fall River native Barney Zeitz.

When we first spoke with Zeitz in the early summer, he was putting the finishing touches on a sculpture that was created to depict the diversity of America. Zeitz said that the concept for the piece was dreamed up well before last summer's racial turmoil, but told us that the timing was meant to be.

There are four categories of people that are represented in the sculpture, and Zeitz believes that fully includes everyone that has ever come – or will come in the future – to Fall River and to the United States. Those four categories are Indigenous people, immigrants, the enslaved, and refugees.

The following photo gallery is an attempt to capture the different stages of development with the sculpture. From the selection of the site to framing of the sculpture to the creation of the faces, the hands and fingers, and the engraving on the piece, it is obvious how much skill and detail went into each aspect of Fall River's newest monument. Even the actual placement of sculpture needed to be well thought out in advance.

The 70-year-old Zeitz told us today he was "hyped" to see the sculpture in place. He said he is going to be careful to take this fall to recover from the added physical toll the sculpture took on his body.

"I welded this alone throughout COVID until the end when I had some help assembling. I did all the welding alone," Zeitz said. "And it was really too much this summer trying to finish."