Abilene’s Cultural District Gets Four Amazing 18 Foot Pillars

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Drilling started this past Monday morning at four downtown locations that are going to be home to four 18-foot pillars identifying the borders of the Abilene Cultural District. Additionally, the pillars will be accompanied by other art sculptures and the project is called “Be Our Guest” to help increase Abilene's downtown cultural tourism.

The first one is the 8-foot, hand-carved stone depiction of William Joyce’s "Mansnoozie" with his arms stretched out welcoming people to Abilene and the Storybook Capital of America. Plus, signs will also be added to the sculpture displays.

LOOK: These are how the downtown sculptures are built

A total of four limestone pillars will be located throughout downtown Abilene

A total of four limestone pillars will be placed in downtown Abilene. They're going to be at North 5th and Orange streets, North 1st and Hickory streets, Pine and North 7th streets, and directly across the street from Frontier Texas. Every one of the pillars will have “Cultural District” spelled down on one side of each pillar, and they will all be lit up at night.

Lynn Barnett, executive director of the Abilene Cultural Affairs Council says “the benefit of creating a sense of place is to reinforce a sense of ownership and pride in our beautiful downtown, which is experiencing a renaissance, and to provide a cultural destination for tourists.”
Lynn went on to say “Abilene was one of the first five cultural districts in the state along with Dallas and Houston, and we take a lot of pride in that designation.”
Source: Abilene Cultural Affairs Council/Lynn Barnett

The best part is that “Rainbow Bear” is a recently donated sculpture from a Texas art collector. The Porky Pig granite piece will be located at another pillar. The Storybook Capital stone sign will be located at the pillar across from Frontier Texas.

Sidney Levesque says that a public celebration for the project will take place on October 22nd. Barnett said "the implementation of “Be Our Guest” will benefit all venues and businesses within the district and fuel the explosive economic and tourism growth."