Gallery on Wheels

A big 45-ft. aluminum trailer truck rumbled into Fredericksburg, Va. one day this week and parked near an elementary school. Outside it looked like any ordinary truck, but the inside was unusual: it contained a small, well-stocked art gallery. The truck was Virginia's new "artmobile," the U.S.'s first art gallery on wheels. Its purpose: to bring great art to people who ordinarily never set foot inside a museum.

Built for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, the truck cost $40,000. has a display area of 32 ft. by 7 ft., airconditioning, an intricate burglar alarm, special wall clamps and brackets to keep pictures and sculpture from bouncing around on rough country roads. After dedication ceremonies in Fredericksburg, people started to file into the exhibit 20 at a time (admission free). Over the truck's P.A. system came 17th century harpsichord music to set the mood for the show, followed by a recorded lecture. On exhibit were sixteen 15th to 17th century Dutch and Flemish paintings, including such masterpieces as Hieronymous Bosch's Temptation of St. Anthony, Aelbert Cuyp's Horsemen Halting on a Road, Pieter Bruegel's The Carnival. Next week the artmobile will take off on a statewide tour (possibly three years) with stops planned so that no Virginian will have to travel more than 15 miles to see the show. At the wheel: Curator-Driver William Gaines, Virginia Museum art expert who trained for his job by taking lessons in truck driving from a Richmond express firm.

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