page_title: Artrain USA
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Artrain USA / History
caption_attribution_description: English: ARTX 1, one of the cars used in the original Artrain, is preserved at Illinois Railway Museum.
context_page_description: Artrain is a traveling art museum on a train. It consists of three gallery cars, with two more cars in support, and travels widely in a given region of the United States, with the region changing every year. It was intended as a short-lived program but has been active for over 30 years due to popular demand.
context_section_description: Artrain USA is believed to be the longest-running special-display train in the United States (the Freedom Trains traveled more widely but were special-purpose exhibitions, first in the late 1940s, and then for the United States Bicentennial celebration in the late 1970s). Though it was intended as a short-lived, statewide program, the Michigan Artrain welcomed 191,000 visitors in 28 cities in the first year, 1971. Soon after, it expanded its focus to nationwide touring.
  Artrain began in 1971 as a project of the "Michigan Council for the Arts", and initially toured Michigan, visiting small towns that did not have their own museums. Throughout the summer of 1971 Michigan Artrain toured across the state of Michigan with over 191,000 visitors in 28 Michigan communities visiting the train’s vintage baggage car converted  to a studio car where 2 resident artists that travelled with the train demonstrated and explained the many different types of art processes and  mediums. Soon after, thanks to popular demand, a separate foundation was set up, and the tour area was broadened to the entire United States with the help of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The first tour beyond Michigan commenced in 1973. Since then, it has hosted 15 or more different exhibitions. Funding of about US$1.5 million annually is through private donations and government grants. In addition, significant in-kind support from the railways it travels over helps reduce funding needs. The name was changed to "Artrain USA" in 1999 to reflect the national mission.
  The Artrain USA organization is an independent nonprofit and has headquarters on North Main Street in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
caption: ARTX 1, part of the original Artrain, preserved at Illinois Railway Museum
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