Riding Through History is an arts-integrated, educational travel program that involves students in the social, political and cultural events in American history that shape the environmental and emotional landscape of our contemporary society.

The goals of Riding Through History are to.

• provide inter-cultural opportunities for Pittsburgh youth that enable them to travel, study and live with students from locales unlike their own;
  
• break down racial barriers and stereotypes by exploring the issues of prejudice, exclusion, racism, power and oppression;
  
• develop critical life skills by identifying choices and forces that differentiate between survival and success;
  
• encourage students to become reflective about their actions, behaviors, and accomplishments;
  
• apply creative problem solving to daily life situations; and,
  
• inspire youth in the discovery and mastery of artistic interests that give voice to mind and spirit.

Riding Through History I: A Cycle of Understanding

Travel 380 miles by bicycle along the C&O Canal and Youghiogheny River trails from Washington, D.C. to Pittsburgh. Retrace the abolitionist movement and the War Between the States with site visits to the Frederick Douglas Home, Appomattox, Gettysburg, Harper's Ferry and an Underground Railway safe house outside of Ohiopyle.

Riding Through History II: How the West was One

Explore the range of Arizona and New Mexico to discover the role of African-Americans and women in the westward expansion.

Riding Through History III: A Voyage of Discovery

Retracing the first part of the Voyage of Discovery from Pittsburgh to Montana, this adventure crossed 12 states. Its purpose was to discover and interpret western history from differing cultural perspectives. The team was particularly interested in the points of view of people whose plight has been largely omitted or misconstrued in official American history.

Participants visited St. Louis, Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, Crow Reservation, Bozeman, MT, Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Devil's Tower, Salt Lake City, UT, Rocky Mountains National Park, Chicago, IL, and Toledo, OH. The group relived the experiences of the Lewis and Clark expedition on water and land. They also visited colleges, cultural centers, museums, national parks and worked with Montana artists Ginnie DeWeese, Chip Raches, John Buck and Jim Dolan to discover how the myth and reality of the west influences creative vision and practice.

Riding Through History IV: Sea Islands Adventure

Through this exploration of the phenomenon of cultural enclaves, participants learned how the Gullah people created a society off the coast of the Carolinas that sustained the religious and societal practices of African homelands.

Riding Through History V: Civil Rights Movement Revisted

A journey through Little Rock, Memphis, Birmingham, Selma, Atlanta and Washington DC that places today's teens in contact with the leaders, risk takers and image makers that formed Civil Rights Movement and brought it to national attention.

Riding through History VI- Lewis and Clark

Twenty-six Pittsburgh Public high school students create art and make some history of their own while having the adventure of a lifetime as they investigate historic, social and environmental legacy of Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery (1803-1806). To hear the story as it is told through historically under-represented voices, students visit Coeur D'Aline, Idaho to participate in a gathering of of Nez Perce, Flathead and Blackfoot peoples. In Pittsburgh, the student team initiated a commemorative garden that tells the story of the journey through living plants and creative landscape design in vacant lots in the Manchester community . MCG thanks AMTRAK for helping to make this experience possible.