Disney World to host exhibit of George W Bush paintings

Dan Gooding
·2 min read
The Walt Disney Company announced it will host “Portraits of Courage: A Commander’s Tribute to America’s Warriors”, a special exhibit from the George W. Bush Institute, for a 12-month exhibition inside The American Adventure pavilion at EPCOT located at Walt Disney World Resort starting with a grand opening on June 9, 2024 (George W. Bush Presidential Center)

Paintings by former President George W. Bush are going on show at Walt Disney World in Florida, as part of a celebration of veterans.

Disney announced the new exhibit, set to open at its EPCOT theme park in June, on Wednesday, saying that it will reflect Mr Bush’s “personal commitment” and “ongoing work” with service personnel.

More than 60 paintings, many featuring service members the president has come to know personally, will be part of the exhibit in the American Adventure pavilion at the central Florida park.

“My hope is that those who have the opportunity to see this special exhibit will also remember the leadership, service and sacrifice behind each of the heroes painted and the unique challenges our service members and their families face when transitioning out of the military,” Ken Hersh, president and CEO of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, said in a press release.

Portraits set to feature in the new exhibition at EPCOT, Walt Disney World Resort in Florida (Disney/George W. Bush Presidential Center)
Portraits set to feature in the new exhibition at EPCOT, Walt Disney World Resort in Florida (Disney/George W. Bush Presidential Center)

Disney explained that each painting in the “Portraits of Courage: A Commander’s Tribute to America’s Warriors” show will be accompanied by the “inspiring story” of those featured.

“Celebrating those who give so much to our country has been part of the fabric of The Walt Disney Company throughout our 100-year history,” Josh D’Amaro, Chairman, Disney Experiences, said.

“We’re grateful to the Bush Institute for allowing us to feature this special collection and share it with our guests.”

Mr Bush, 77, was in the White House during the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, with the George W. Bush Institute’s work focusing on those who have served in the military since that time.

When a similar exhibition opened in 2017, President Bush explained that he knew each person he had painted.

The American Adventure pavilion at EPCOT will host the exhibition starting 9 June 2024 (DISNEY)
The American Adventure pavilion at EPCOT will host the exhibition starting 9 June 2024 (DISNEY)

"These are people that don’t want to be called heroes," Bush told NBC News. "They just want [others] to say thank you for doing a good job and I don’t want people to feel sorry for them."

The new version of the exhibition will open on 9 June and run for a year, Disney said, and will feature resources for post-9/11 vets and their families.

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest Stories

  • Exclusive satellite images show destroyed Russian jets and building at Crimean airbase

    Satellite images exclusively obtained by CNN show three destroyed Russian jets and damaged buildings at Belbek airbase in occupied port city of Sevastopol on Wednesday.

  • Russia can't seem to stop this Ukrainian Cessna-style drone that, compared to missiles, is basically a 'flying brick' with a bomb onboard

    Moscow's feared air defenses have proven to be a headache on the battlefield, but Ukraine's deep drone strikes are slipping through.

  • China navy secretly built what could be world's first drone aircraft carrier: report

    Satellite imagery suggests that China has built an aircraft carrier specifically for drones. Its small size is a clue to its purpose.

  • Ukraine's getting more longe-range missiles that leave the Russians with 'nowhere to hide'

    Multiple NATO countries have promised Ukraine powerful missiles that Kyiv previously used to hit high-value Russian targets.

  • Anti-Putin Russian paramilitaries join Ukraine's fight in Kharkiv region

    Peeking out from under a hat and with his face covered, the Russian fighting for Kyiv described unrelenting battles in the northeastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv where Moscow's forces opened a new front last week. The soldier is part of the Freedom of Russia Legion, a group of Russians opposed to President Vladimir Putin who are fighting for Ukraine. Ukraine has sent reinforcements, including the legion and two other units made up of Russian nationals, to shore up its defence against a Russian ground incursion into the northern reaches of Kharkiv region that began nearly a week ago.

  • Israeli military calls for investigation after releasing video showing armed men at UN facility in Gaza

    The Israeli military is calling on the United Nations to investigate the presence of armed militants at a UN facility in southern Gaza after releasing video that shows armed men at the facility.

  • Top NATO commander says Russian troop numbers insufficient for Kharkiv breakthrough

    NATO's top commander said on Thursday he did not believe Russia's military has deployed enough troops to make a strategic breakthrough in the region around Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine. General Christopher Cavoli, NATO's supreme allied commander Europe, said he was confident Ukrainian forces would hold their lines in the region. Russia last week opened a new front in the Ukraine war when small groups of highly mobile units pushed swiftly over the border into the Kharkiv region, forcing Ukraine to rush in troops from other areas.

  • Ukraine war: Zelenskyy cancels all foreign trips - as Russian troops 'partially pushed back'

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has cancelled all his foreign trips in an alarming sign of the grave situation for his depleted troops as Russia's new offensive continues. In an update on the battlefield situation, Ukraine's military said active combat clashes raged on in the north and northwestern parts of the town and a total of 18 Russian assaults were repelled. On Tuesday, Ukraine's general staff reported troops had fallen back from areas in Lukyantsi and Vovchansk, which is a mere three miles from Russia, "in order to save the lives of our servicemen and avoid losses".

  • There's 'no humanitarian catastrophe' in Rafah, Netanyahu insists

    Israel is "fulfilling our obligation to (Rafah's) humanitarian needs," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says.

  • Russia says it destroys five Ukraine-launched ATACMS missiles over Crimea

    The Russian defence ministry said on Thursday that its air defence forces destroyed five long-range missiles known as ATACMS that Ukraine's military launched overnight at Crimea. The ministry did not provide any evidence that Ukraine used the U.S.-supplied Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, that Washington said earlier this week were already reaching the Ukrainian forces. The Russian defence ministry did not say in its statement on the Telegram messaging app whether there was any damage as a result of the attack.

  • Egypt warns Israel of ‘dire repercussions’ over Rafah operation in Gaza

    Egypt could consider downgrading relations with Israel if it presses on with a military operation in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah on the Egyptian border, an Egyptian official told CNN.

  • The Latest | Israel says it will send more troops to Rafah, as fighting also rages in Gaza's north

    Israel's defense minister said the military would send more troops into Rafah, a city along Gaza's southern border with Egypt, as fighting also rages in northern Gaza, where Hamas has regrouped. South Africa is seeking emergency measures at the U.N.'s top court to halt Israel’s escalating offensive in Rafah, calling the incursion “the last step in the destruction of Gaza.” Israel has portrayed Rafah as the last Hamas stronghold, brushing off warnings from the United States and other allies that

  • Scrambles of NATO jets against Russian aircraft up more than 20%, source says

    Scrambles of NATO jets to intercept Russian aircraft approaching allied airspace over the Baltic Sea region went up 20% to 25% in the first quarter of 2024, a NATO source said on Thursday, with the increased Russian activity likely due to a hike in NATO drills. The source declined to give a concrete figure for the number of Russian military flights encountered close to NATO territory. Last year, NATO said allied fighter jets took off over 300 times to intercept Russian military aircraft, with most of the incidents occurring over the Baltic.

  • Russia expels British defense attaché in a tit-for-tat move

    Russia on Thursday declared Britain's defense attaché persona non grata and gave the diplomat a week to leave the country in response to London's decision to expel the Russian defense attaché earlier this month over spying allegations. Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it summoned a representative of the British Embassy in Moscow on Thursday to express its “strong protest in connection with the unfriendly and groundless decision” to expel the Russian attaché from London. Britain on May 8 announced several measures to target Moscow’s intelligence gathering operations in the U.K. Those included a decision to boot Maxim Elovik, a Russian colonel who the British government termed an “undeclared military intelligence officer,” rescinding the diplomatic status of several Russian-owned properties because they are believed to have been used for intelligence purposes, and imposing new restrictions on Russian diplomatic visas and visits.

  • USS Ronald Reagan leaves its Japan home port after nearly 9 years

    A U.S. Navy strike group's flagship aircraft carrier left its Japanese home port on Thursday, wrapping up nearly nine years of deployment in the Indo-Pacific, where it served a key role in the U.S. effort to bolster defense ties with Japan and other partners in the region. The departure of USS Ronald Reagan — one of America’s largest warships and a nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carrier — comes at a time of growing tension in the face of increasingly assertive China in the Indo-Pacific.

  • US aid to Ukraine is arriving too late to stop major advances by Russia, says ex-US military official

    Russia is seeking to exploit weaknesses caused by the delay in US aid to Ukraine.

  • Biden's move to send $1 billion in weapons to Israel could backfire

    It comes days after the US withheld a shipment of bombs to Israel amid concerns over a major military operation in the southern Gazan city of Rafah.

  • Hezbollah says it launched drones at military base west of Israel's Tiberias

    BEIRUT (Reuters) -Hezbollah said it launched a drone attack at a military base west of Israel's Tiberias on Wednesday, in the deepest strike into Israeli territory since the Lebanese armed group began exchanging fire with Israel in parallel with the Gaza war. Hezbollah said it was targeting part of a surveillance system used by the Israeli air force, and that the swarm of attack drones "hit its limited targets accurately and accomplished what it wanted in this limited operation."

  • Israel-Hamas war: Temporary pier off Gaza to boost aid to Palestinians completed, US military says

    A long-awaited temporary pier built in order to get urgent aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza has anchored to a beach off the besieged enclave, the US military has said. The US Central Command said its personnel anchored the pier at about 7.40am local time (5.40am BST) as part of a mission to deliver additional humanitarian aid to Gaza, where thousands of people are facing starvation as enough aid supplies have for months failed to make it in. Israel recently seized the key Rafah border crossing in its push on that southern city on the Egyptian border, complicating the delivery of critical supplies.

  • Russian forces are trying to take Ukrainian village 30km from Kharkiv, says RIA

    Russian forces are preparing to try to take a village called Lyptsi located about 30 km (19 miles) north of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, according to a Russian-installed official quoted by Russia's RIA state news agency. Russia last week opened a new front in the Ukraine war by pushing swiftly over the border into the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine with small groups of highly mobile units, a move that has forced Ukraine to rush in troops from other areas. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy postponed all his foreign trips as Ukraine's battlefield situation continued to deteriorate on Wednesday and Kyiv said fighting was raging in the northeastern border town of Vovchansk in Kharkiv region.