Project originator, administrator, grant writer and participating artist:

In the summer of 1995, our group of 14 Montana contemporary artists toured 17 mostly rural communities around the state with 9 portable installations, live music and hands-on interactive art staged inside, outside and around travel trailers and tents. In each host community the Caravan would circle the wagons in a pre-determined space, set-up the art and open to the public. There were roaming musicians, the artists were on-hand for conversations, you could saw a woman in half, get the chance to walk a 15 foot tall skeleton puppet around, get your fortune randomly assigned by a bean bag toss and, a big favorite, watch an astonishing two dog fashion show/dog show featuring Freckles and Schotzie. You could learn about an iceman cowboy whose badly preserved remains were on display, along with his favorite armchair and other memorabilia, see an RV entirely covered with cow contact paper, learn the true history of travel trailers throughout time and space, tour a portable cemetery, enter a peepshow exhibit about Queen Elizabeth the First’s time travel adventures, marvel at the The Sphinx Trailer, draw on or sign our large signature tent, enter an immersive tent draped with snips of poetry and quotes from prominent women, see a bike decked out like a rodeo horse ridden by our town crier, or enter a peaceful wall tent bedecked with dancing figures.. Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts (Arts in Public Places grant), Montana Arts Council and Burlington Northern Foundation, this innovative projects’ goal was to present contemporary art in unlikely places to audiences who would normally have to travel to see this sort of work. We were hosted by nonprofit art centers, universities, historical societies, friendly community organizations and businesses and individual artists at a variety of venues, including an historic fort, fairgrounds, contemporary art center grounds, along a dirt road beside a mostly-abandoned town and tied into other events such as the 4th of July, an all-nations pow-wow, county fairs, art festivals and other seasonal yearly events. We met thousands of Montanans; kids and dog and teachers and musicians and cowboys and ranchers and the art crowd and the non-art crowd and the curious passers-by who spotted our sideshow and stopped to take a gander. We camped with our circled vehicles and art in those communities and were often joined by locals around the nightly campfires. And then the next day we would pack it up and head on down the road. This tour was done in 3 legs, with our grand finale hosted by the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramics Art in Helena at their annual Brickyard Bash, where the Montana contemporary art community and their supporters come together for a massive late-summer party/fundraiser.

In 2006, the Caravaners created a limited edition print portfolio as a fundraiser for future collaborations.

Please contact me for more information on this collection.