St. Charles Business Alliance donates "Be You" sculpture to city of St. Charles

ST. CHARLES – The St. Charles Business Alliance is donating a new art piece in downtown St. Charles to the city of St. Charles.

The nonprofit group St. Charles Business Alliance began working on this project in the winter of 2018, when the group met with Chicago artist Matthew Hoffman. Hoffman is the custodian of You Are Beautiful, a project to better the world in little ways.

The message has reached every corner of the globe with over five million stickers shared. Hoffman was invited to downtown St. Charles to look at the area and to create a positive affirmation 3-D sculpture that represented the city.

Knowing the sculpture would be placed on the banks of the beautiful Fox River, Matthew created the City of St. Charles’ unique positive public sculpture “Be You”.

“I’m always trying to boil things down to their essence," Hoffman said in talking about the sculpture in a news release from the St. Charles Business Alliance. "This does a pretty good job. Just be you. That’s it.”

SCBA has paid the costs related to the construction of the sculpture. Those costs total $12,950.

“It has been amazing to see this project come together," St. Charles Business Alliance Marketing Manager Alyssa Feulner said in the release. "There is nothing better than seeing people posting pictures with the sculpture and writing such positive comments about being unique, being beautiful and just being yourself. It is exactly what the purpose of this sculpture is."