I keep forgetting to post that we've had some terrible art car news. Artscape this year is cancelled! The American Visionary Art Museum has withdrawn all support for the art car event. No line-up outside the museum, no caravan through downtown Baltimore, no parade through the Artscape festival. They said that if we showed up to the festival anyway, there would be a place for the art cars to park. So in other words, the boring part at the end of the event is now the event in its entirety.
Artscape has been our regular art car event for the past 2 years, and I was hoping would continue to be for many years to come. It's great fun, big (30-50 cars), some really good people come, it's only a 4 hour drive for us, and it's close to good friends of ours who always ride with us.
It hasn't really sunk in yet because I'm too pre-occupied with Houston, but I know that as soon as I have time to think about it I'm going to be crushed. I don't know of any other art car event of that size on the East Coast. We had even ordered T-shirts from Cafe Press for our friend's daughters that say "Artscape 2004" on them. What a bummer!
On the bright side, this means we'll definitely have time to go to that September event in Columbus that I've been hearing about. It's a lot smaller than Artscape but I've heard it's a really fun event for the drivers.
5 Comments
oh no, that totally sucks!
artscape seemed like it could conceivably be within reach of the westy... houston seems so far.
boo :(
maybe we need to organize our own local event.
I know, it really really sucks. Maybe you could come to the one in Columbus? It's not that much further, I think, and they told me they try to make it really nice for the drivers.
Did I tell you that I ran into the director of Durham Central Park in Whole Foods parking lot a couple weeks ago & he wants to have an art car event this summer in Durham? I'm supposed to meet with him after I get back. I can't wait to find out what he has in mind & what he's willing to do. Hope he has the budget to bring some out of town drivers!
Well I just downloaded all my email, and what did I find but the application form for Artscape 2004! The application says there will be a line-up at the museum and a caravan through Baltimore, just like last year.
I'm so confused! I wrote back telling them I had heard the event was off and would they please clarify.
the one potential issue with columbus (which really may be a total non-issue) is crossing a mountain range in the westy would probably be quite painful. i mean, neal has crossed quite a few, no doubt. it would just take patience, and maybe some extra travel time.
that's great that the central park people are thinking of this!! i wonder if i could rush some parts of 9 westy's transformation so she'd be kinda ready?
let me know what you find out about artscape.
Here's the email I just got from the AVAM:
"Regarding the event, we have started pretty late but are still planning mostly the same as previous years. Dave Bakker, who has been an organizer of the event in the past sent out an email saying that the show at Artscape was on but the parade was cancelled. That was just a situation where he misunderstood. Dave's great and wasn't spreading rumors. So we are going forward and hope that you can participate again."
I don't know the real story but I'm glad the event is still on!