Some artists have had an idea that spins off the “whistlestop” train tours that politicians since Lincoln have taken to connect to voters.
Randy Kennedy writes at ArtsBeat in the NY Times, “Chartered train trips tend to conjure images of flag bunting, stump speeches and glad-handing politicians.
“But a cross-country whistle-stop tour now being planned as a kind of rolling public art project by the artist Doug Aitken might give train travel considerably more cultural cachet.
“Mr. Aitken, who works in Los Angeles and whose pieces in video and film often explore speed and people in transit, has organized a three-week journey from New York to San Francisco, with 10 stops in between, called ‘Station to Station: a Nomadic Happening,’ which will include not only shows by visual artists but also music, poetry and food. …
“ ‘This really came out of a kind of restlessness, the feeling that art forms are too often segregated, music played in the same clubs and art shown in the same galleries and museums,’ Mr. Aitken said in an interview. ‘I felt like we needed to experiment with a new model.’ ’
The trip will go from September 8 to September 28. Read more to see if it will stop in your town.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
President and Mrs. Roosevelt on a whistlestop tour.
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