The staple of visiting an amusement park is the carousel. Elmira’s historic horses have received lots of love over time. Some artists are working to touch up some of the wear and tear.

“Right now, basically there’s some gold chipping over here, so I’m going to mix the exact gold color and just kinda put it wherever I see that chipped paint,” said Alex Taylor, an Elmira College sophomore.

He spent two hours a day painting.

“Time flies when you’re in here, actually; you start working and you get so invested in it. You almost get a connection with the animals,” said Taylor.

He’s tending to the more than 50 horses on the historic carousel at Eldridge Park, hand mixing each shade of paint.

“Generally, I’m trying to get in the ballpark of the color, and you can kinda blend it in to what’s around it,” said Taylor. “The original artist did such a phenomenal job, they’re just beautiful. I just think it's so cool to touch them up, and kinda get them back to their original selves.”

A partnership with Community Arts of Elmira brings students like Alex to the carousel to make these horses beautiful again. As a student at Elmira College, his ultimate goal is to become an art teacher. He’s helping to keep the carousel in top shape with the stroke of his brush.

You can ride the 1890s carousel on weekends in Eldridge Park in Elmira.