A little more than 40 years ago, in the midst of a national arts renaissance, Artrain was conceptualized by a group of arts activists who believed that the arts should be available to everyone, everywhere. Inspired by Mr. E. Ray Scott and Mrs. Helen Milliken, a former First Lady of Michigan, Artrain was created by the Michigan Council for the Arts (MCA) as its inaugural program.

Debuting in 1971 as the Michigan Artrain, the goal was to provide opportunities to under-represented, rural and low-income Michigan residents through art and art education and to encourage the development of local arts councils. Intended as a short-lived, statewide program, Artrain welcomed 191,000 visitors in 28 cities during that first year of operation.

News of Artrain quickly spread beyond Michigan's borders. Within two years, MCA received requests from other states to share the unique art museum. The need for our programs, across the country, surprised even our founders. With help from the National Endowment for the Arts, Artrain launched our first tour outside of Michigan in 1973. Building on this momentum, the Michigan Artrain was incorporated as Artrain, Inc., an independent non-profit in 1975.

With a solid reputation behind it, Artrain's past exhibition partners and participants have included The Smithsonian Institution, The Detroit Institute of Arts, The Museum of Modern Art, The National Air and Space Museum and The Heard Museum.

The Ford Foundation, MetLife Foundation, The William Randolph Hearst Foundation and numerous private donors have found Artrain's exhibitions of the highest artistic integrity. Past exhibition artists have included many of the world's most recognized and reputed artists such as Elizabeth Catlett, Dale Chihuly, Willem de Kooning, Robert Indiana, Jacob Lawrence, Dan Namingha, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol and James Wyeth.

Today, Artrain is recognized as not only the pioneer in taking art exhibitions, art education and outreach programs to communities through the United States, but as the mobile museum authority. Those claims are easy to justify when one considers that since 1971, Artrain has completed more than 845 community visits from coast-to-coast and welcomed 3.2 million visitors!