Horizon: An American Saga
Irving, Texas welcomes Academy Award-winning visionary filmmaker Kevin Costner. The City is proud to help promote his two new epic films “Horizon: An American Saga” Chapters I and II, a multi-faceted chronicle covering the Civil War expansion. The first film will be released in theaters on June 28th.
To celebrate his 43 years as an actor/director and his profound impact on American cinema, Mayor Rick Stopfer will be presenting Costner with a Key to The City. This comes not only as recognition of an extraordinary career – but also for Kevin Costner’s continued celebration of the American West and what it took to tame it.
Irving, Texas sits at the center of two of Western America’s greatest cities, Dallas and Fort Worth. Combined, they create one of the great gateways to the west. The men and women that settled Irving, Texas played a huge role in creating a passage for the rest of the world to follow. This gateway created one of the world’s most dynamic urban areas with the DFW MSA being the fourth largest in the country.
Irving, TEXAS AND MUSTANGS OF LAS COLINAS
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Dallas businessman Ben H. Carpenter, developer of Las Colinas, dreamed of a larger-than-life sculpture of a group of wild mustangs running across a stream. The sculpture would be the centerpiece of Las Colinas and celebrate Irving’s “Unbridled” energy and potential. In 1976, Carpenter approached African wildlife artist, Robert Glen, to bring his vision to reality.
Working from his studio in Nairobi, Glen made small scale models of mustangs in various poses to help him work out the design of the sculpture. Glen made molds of these models and shipped them to a foundry in England. The foundry used the molds and created 1½ times life-size foam models. The foundry completed the bronze casting in November 1981. The mustangs were then shipped by air from England to Irving, Texas, and the sculpture was dedicated on Sept. 25, 1984.
Robert Glen was born in Nairobi, Kenya on May 24, 1939 to Scottish parents. He lived in Africa for most of his life. He was a famed wildlife sculptor with his work featured in museums and private collections including the late Queen Elizabeth II. He passed away at age 83 following a short illness in Cork, Ireland on October 28, 2023.
For more information on the Mustangs of Las Colinas, visit the Irving Archives and Museum website.
5215 N. O’Connor Boulevard | Suite 200 | Irving, Texas 75039
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