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The Armine Nutting Gosling statue is a legacy project of the PerSIStence Theatre Company, and their work towards a vision of community enlightenment based on the core beliefs of feminism. It was sparked by the 100th anniversary of women's right to vote in municipal elections in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador in 1921, and was raised in 2025 in commemoration of the centenary of women island-wide achieving the right to vote in 1925. 

This four-year project was chaired by Dr. Margot I. Duley, assisted by other volunteer board and committee members, including Amanda Bittner, Vanessa Cardoso-Whelan, Giovanna Del Negro, Melanie Fleming, Lauren Flynn, Lynn Gambin, Amanda Gear, Lori Greene, Natalie Haire, Lynn Hammond, Kathy Hawkins, Sylina Jones, Susan Kelsey, Lydia Lewycky, Cassondra Martin, Eileen Maxwell, Caroline McDonald, Trudy Morgan-Cole, Caroline Nicholson, Hanna North, Michelle Quinlan, Melanie Racette-Campbell, Catherine Rider, Lori Savory, Shazia Shaheen, Hayley Shaughnessy, Michelle Snow, Christine Taylor, Kim Todd, Sandra Toomey, Jacinthe Tremblay, Deatra Walsh, Victoria Wells-Smith, Cara Winsor-Hehir, Jocelyn Young.

The program was managed by Jenn Deon, assisted by other staff members, including Sadhana Bhandari, Meret Ebsary, Krystle Earles, George Ferguson, Hanna Furs, Nick Gushue, Anna Hansen-Robitschek, Leahdawn Helena, Bailey Jackson, Maahin Khan, Tiffany Martin, Lonni Patey, Erika Squires, Vidya Sambandamurthy, Willa Small, Kay Steneker, Genevieve Walsh, Katy Warren, Vanessa Wright and Jocelyn Young.

The statue was designed by Sheila T. Coultas and is the first public bronze sculpture in the province to be designed and cast by a woman. It was forged in the Newfoundland Bronze Foundry. 

Sheila T. Coultas, Visual Artist RSE (welder)
she/her

​Art is the language of the soul, and Newfoundland, this wild and irresistibly beautiful Island has always been the home that inspired it for Sheila; thus far. It is the magic of the land, and the soul of Gaia that leads her fancy to create, and prompts her inspiration into action.

Sheila’s background and repertoire of skills include work with textiles and fiber, and paintings usually combined with textiles or metal, or both.

Recently Sheila has been working on refining specific ideas and techniques. She has made realistic portrayals of people, more whimsical and abstract work designed around collected pieces of bronze, and most recently painting with red ochre, charcoal, and other powdered pigments on birch bark, with a special interest in the pigments that minerals and plants can provide.

Sheila is currently working as foundry technician, welder, and metal- worker at The Newfoundland Bronze Foundry with Morgan MacDonald. She has recently, and with this sculpture of Armine Nutting Gosling, included figurative sculpture into the repertoire of subjects and mediums she has worked with.

For more information about Sheila and an overview of the bronze pouring process, check out this interview with the artist.

Dr. Margot Duley - Project Chair
she/her

​Dr. Margot Iris Duley was born in St. John's. She received a  B.A. from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador,  an M.A. in British Imperial and South Asian History from Duke University, North Carolina. and a a Ph.D. in South Asian and British Imperial History from the School of Oriental and African Studies, the University of London. 

She is Professor Emerita of History at Eastern Michigan University and Dean Emerita, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the University of Illinois, Springfield.

She is especially interested in cross-cultural, comparative studies of women's status and movements and her most recent scholarship has focused on Newfoundland. She is the chief editor and contributor to the Cross-Cultural Study of Women (Feminist Press, 1986). Her publications on women in Newfoundland, include the pioneering Where Once Our Mothers Stood We Stand: Women's Suffrage in Newfoundland 1890-1925, a biography of Armine Gosling, the leader of the women's suffrage movement, a study of the mid 19th century feminist Margaret Peace, women's patriotic work during World War One and Nurse Mona Loder, the first Newfoundland nurse to arrive at the Front and a biography of her aunt, entitled Extraordinary Passages: the Life and Times of Margaret Iris Duley, Newfoundland's Pathbreaking Novelist (MUN Press, 2024). A new and expanded version of Margot's suffrage history will appear shortly (From Silence to Suffrage: Women’s Path to Citizenship in Newfoundland, 1803-1949 (Boulder Press, 2025).

A publicly engaged scholar, Margot served as President of the National Organization for Women,  Michigan Conference during the height of the Equal Rights Amendment campaign. Margot is included in a film "Passing the Torch," sponsored by Veteran Feminists of America and her papers are at the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan. 

Upon retirement, she returned to the place she loves and is a Board Member  of the PerSIStence Theatre Company. She has been delighted and honoured to serve as Chair of the Armine N. Gosling Statue Committee.