A new herd of horses is heading to Ocala, Marion Cultural Alliance celebrates 20 years of ‘Horse Fever’

OCALA, Fla. (WCJB) - A new herd is heading into Ocala to celebrate the 20th anniversary of ‘Horse Fever’.

Only 20 artists from across Florida will have the opportunity to paint one of these horses which will be displayed around town in early 2021.

“Horse Fever was founded 20 years ago and we’re getting ready to celebrate our anniversary and we thought what better way than to bring back up to 20 new horses into the herd,” Executive Director of the Marion Cultural alliance, Jaye Baillie said.

The Marion Cultural Alliance is asking artists to submit renderings of their best designs for these statues.

The submissions will go before a jury and the 20 artists chosen will be put into a portfolio where a patron will then review and decide which one they want to sponsor.

The horses could end up on either public or private property.

“We do know that two of the horses that have been purchased so far will be for public use. One of them will go in a City of Ocala park and the other one will be on the safety campus on the west side of Ocala,” Baillie said.

But the project is on a tight timeline.

“The horses will be shipped the artists will be picking them up in early fall, they’ll be painting them, they’ll come back to be clear coated and then they will be assembled here in the early part of 2021,” Baillie said.

MCA has sponsored similar projects in the past with ‘Horse Fever in Motion’ and a celebration of the installment’s 10th anniversary. each horse costs 30,000 dollars.

The proceeds from this project will benefit MCA and the organizations that the alliance serves.

Submissions must be dropped off at the Brick City Center for the Arts office no later than 5 p.m. this Friday.

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