Every great civilization has embraced the arts and used public funds to promote and enhance them. That’s because art makes a community or a country better to look at and better to live in.
Imagine Ocala without its Horse Fever horses. Or its murals across the exteriors of downtown buildings. Or the world-renown collection of paintings, sculptures and artifacts in the Appleton Museum. Or the plays and musicals offered by the Ocala Civic Theatre. Or the musical performances at the Reilly Center.
Oh, what a dreary place it would be. Ocala would be a wholly different place without its artistic influences.
The arts in our community are not just beauty and inspiration for its residents, though. A 2022 study by Americans for the Arts found that cultural arts in Ocala/Marion County generate more than $53 million in annual economic activity and provide jobs for some 800 people.
That means arts and culture are a small but growing economic engine that, by no coincidence, is attracting artists from around the country.
And it has happened through the work and generosity of our friends and neighbors.
Consider that a decade ago the Reilly Center for the Arts in Tuscawilla Park was an aging, decrepit Depression-era venue known as the Memorial Auditorium. Through donations from art lovers a 700-seat performing arts venue was erected.
Ocala has been blessed by the 17,000 paintings, sculptures and artifacts donated to the Appleton Museum of Art by industrialist and horseman Arthur Appleton. Through care and support from the community, however, that gift has flourished and today the Appleton is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, a prestigious ranking that places it among the top 6 percent of museums nationally, in the same category as the Smithsonian.
The Ocala Civic Theatre has been around for nearly three-quarters of a century and been delivering memorable and entertaining performances that whole time. What makes the OCT so special is that its successes come not from out-of-town stars or visiting ensembles. What makes OCT so great — and it’s one of Florida’s biggest community theaters — is that everything is done with local talent, from backstage to onstage to the lighting booth.
Finally, we’re the Horse Capital of the World. So, back in 2001 when local arts aficionados conceived a public arts initiative to raise money to help promote and expand the arts in the community, they dubbed it Horse Fever. Today, the Horse Fever horses still turn heads and serve as backdrops for selfies because people love beautiful art … and horses.
The arts make our community a better, more beautiful place to live. That is inarguable.
They also bring our community together over and over, whether it is to see a play, listen to a concert or simply enjoy artistic masterpieces in an award-winning museum.
We are blessed in Ocala to have not only a robust arts community but a growing one. So, if you want to bring a little beauty, a little inspiration, a little joy to your life, enjoy the arts in Ocala. They are good and getting better.
