Rainbow Horse Festival

The “Rainbow Horses” project was developed and implemented as a part of the 800th anniversary celebration of the Great Mongolian Empire with an aim to coordinate a cultural heritage and arts education project throughout Mongolia for disadvantaged young people and children. The project was enabled through the partnership of different youth, community development, arts and education organizations. The project honors the ancient connection Mongolians have with horses and also aimed to educate and encourage community workers to utilize creative activities as a tool for personal and social change through decorating 88 horses’ sculptures with paint and glass tiles.

"We first talked about our horses, read Mongolian fairy tales and legends and then decided how it should look. Painting our horse was great fun!" says B. Orgiltsetseg a school student from Kharkhorin town.

"The project is all about honoring the ancient connection Mongolians have with horses and to provide access to arts education for disadvantaged and isolated communities. Each community was given five horses to decorate, allowing children to express what it means to be Mongolian through the use of traditional patterning, symbols and stories. Many of the horses depict both traditional and contemporary life in Mongolia as well as illustrating Mongolian history," said Ts. Ariunaa, the Arts Council's executive director.

Groups of children painted the horses under the guidance of professional artists. The Rainbow Horses project is a wonderful opportunity for artists to expand their skills and knowledge by learning to use the creative process to work with groups of disadvantaged children.

The children worked in groups to brainstorm concepts; sketch ideas on paper, then decide on a final design as a group. "The children were required to use communication, team work and problem solving skills to create their horse. It also gave them a chance to visually express their ideas, thoughts and feelings." says Tanya Burkhardt, the Project Coordinator.

"Bayankhongor community has never seen a project like this before and the children were really excited and enjoyed the process. Many beautiful horses were created that expressed the children's deep connection and pride associated with horses and cultural traditions." says Blake Gooch, Peace Corp Volunteer teaching at School No. 2 in the Bayankhongor aimag center.

Teachers and students from the Institute of Fine Arts have been busy making and hand painting small Rainbow Horses that will be available for sale at the Rainbow Horses Festival as well as at the Red Ger Gallery.

The horses traveled many miles on the dusty bumpy roads in specially made boxes to schools in Tuv, Khentii, South Gobi, Bayan Khongor provinces, Ulaanbaatar city and Khar Khorin town, as well as the Juvenile Prison in Ulaanbaatar, involving 300 children and recruiting and training a group of Mongolian artists who facilitated the workshops. The Rainbow Horses project proved to be a wonderful opportunity for artists to expand on their existing skills and knowledge by learning to use the creative process to facilitate personal growth.

All 88 horses were exhibited as part of the Rainbow Horses Festival on 8th July, 2006 at the Sukhbaatar Square as part of the 800th Anniversary celebrations. The Rainbow Horses were also exhibited at the Modern Art Gallery from 21st July until 4th, 2006.

The Arts Council wishes to express special thanks to the premier sponsor BHP Billiton, the world's largest diversified resource company, as well as Khan Bank, the French Embassy and Alliance Francaise de Mongolie and CaBSAF (Mongolia - Australia Capacity Building and Small Activity Facility) all of whom generously supported the project.

The project has successfully established partnerships between isolated communities, artists, businesses, non-government organisations and the Mongolian government. This will work as a foundation for future projects coordinated by the Arts Council of Mongolia.

ACM is planning to expand the project in the future to involve more disadvantaged and isolated communities who would not normally have access to community art projects.