$2,500 to Paint a horse

The County Kildare Twinning Committee are looking for an artist that can convince us he/she can paint or otherwise decorate a Horse (Fiberglass & life sized ) to represent County Kildare at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Lexington, Kentucky next year.

The event is HorseMania, 75 of the horses will by American artists representing cities all over the USA that are part of the Sister Cities Confederation, which is the American equivalent of Twinning in Europe. Four Horses will be flown to Europe to be transformed to represent Deauville in France, County Kildare in Ireland, Sinidaka in Japan and Newmarket in England. Each will be decorated by a local artist - any medium or multi media.

Some examples show horses decorated to a theme in ceramics in tiny interlocking shards of mirror glass while another was a horse-poster of Lexington's tourist attractions. One that really caught the eye was called 'Jacques' which featured a collage of the racing silks of the last 50 Kentucky Derby Winners - now there's an idea !

When decorated the European Horses, including Kildare's, will be shipped back to Kentucky, in time to go on display throughout Lexington from July 1st. until the Games are over in October. Then they will be auctioned and the proceeds go to Art and non profit charities with a percentage we understand going to the artist.

'HorseMania' was last organised to celebrate the Millenium and raised over a million dollars. So do we have an artist in County Kildare to beat the world?

If you would like to be considered for the task, contact Sean Cleary at 0849090044 for an application form. You will be asked to give an outline and sketch of your Theme and idea when returning the application. A bursary of $2,500 will be available to the successful artistand it will give that person huge Media exposure especially in the United States.