Minnesota Historical Society's film installation "Arriving/Departing in Central Standard Time." Photo credit: Michael Mouw.
Union Depot signage remnant near Minnesota Historical Society's film "Arriving/Departing in Central Standard Time." Photo credit: Michael Mouw
Arriving/Departing in Central Standard Time
The Minnesota Historical Society is commissioning artists Michael and Abigail Mouw to create a film “Arriving/Departing in Central Standard Time.” The film is inspired by signage remnants still visible where clocks once hung on the walls of Union Depot.
Drawing upon the Minnesota Historical Society’s film, photograph and oral history collections, the film will create a journey back to an earlier era when the depot was filled with passengers. The film will be projected directly onto the brick walls of the depot. Festival-goers will feel the building has awakened to show our state’s long history of rail transportation in the days when local passengers only traveled in Central Standard Time. Daylight Savings Time became law in 1966, as train travel was fading away.
The film will draw upon poignant stories of rail travel from the Society’s collections including advertising films featuring Burlington Northern’s Empire Builder and the trip west from Saint Paul. “Arriving/Departing in Central Standard Time” will reveal layers of history while reconnecting us to our shared communal memory of train travel.
This project is funded by the Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on Nov. 4, 2008.
