People`s Train of Culture: expression of art for all

Abstract

Measure number 40 of the Popular Unity government program headed by President Salvador Allende, had the objective of creating the National Institute of Art and Culture through the establishment of artistic training schools in all the provinces of Chile. The flagship experience that managed to unite all the symbolism after this measure was the People´s Train of Culture, a train that traveled with artists from various disciplines for forty days to the south of Chile, taking various artistic expressions to places where they had never arrived before. The activity carried out in February 1971 was successful in terms of the artists who participated in it and the population

benefiting from the activities, however, it was never repeated again, due to events that made it difficult for the Unity government to continue Popular, to the point of causing its fall in the coup d’état of September 11, 1973. What was left of that experience in the Chilean population? Can it be considered one of the first attempts to decentralize the culture of the capital and promote young artists from their closest geographical and cultural environment? Did the experience leave its mark on the artists who later had to fight against the dictatorship from within or from exile? It is what we try to decipher in this article. This is what we are trying to decipher in this article, which is complemented by testimonies captured in the recording process of the documentary "People´s Train of Culture", directed by the author in 2015.