If you're fortunate enough to be footloose and fancy-free for the next month (hey, it's called "funemployment" for a reason), then there's no time like the present to celebrate being young and carefree by going on a road trip. From exhibits to concerts to art festivals, there's a goldmine of artistic experiences lined up in the good old US of A. We've concocted a route that ensures the artsiest cross-country experience — and don't worry, we've spared you the International Gourd Art Festival.
Take the next few days to pack and formulate a few impeccably hipster driving playlists and hit up the best of the current Boston arts scene, like the Dale Chihuly exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston or Lyric Stage Company's production of the classic and uproarious Marx Brothers musical, "Animal Crackers."
Come May 27, hop in a car and head to Provincetown, Mass., to exercise your intellectual muscles with a feminist art exhibition. The Bowersock Gallery is featuring "Bits, Bobs, and Bubble Wrap," which showcases the work of oil painter Erin Murray and assemblage/jewelery artist Lauren Pollaro. Murray uses images and bubble wrap to explore how women express themselves and their cultures by what they choose to showcase or conceal.
Now that you can officially feel like you've put your college education to good use, it's time for the fun stuff. Set your GPS for New York, but before you get there, pull over in Connecticut and distract yourself with the "American Storytellers: Norman Rockwell & Mark Twain" exhibit at the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford until May 29, when Paul Simon will (gently but melodically) rock the MGM Grand Theatre at Foxwoods in Mashantucket. After that, proceed on to the Big Apple, where you should see at least two Broadway plays (we recommend anything but "Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark") and the "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty" exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The next leg of your journey takes you south to Washington, D.C., if you're interested in seeing throwback bands New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys at the Verizon Center on June 3. If you're too cool to appreciate '90s boybands — even ironically — then keep driving until you hit Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for a concert at the Culture Room on June 5, featuring Matt & Kim, DJ Autobot and The Thermals. Don't worry, "Daylight" (2009) won't be stuck in your head forever. Swing up to Manchester, Tenn., to partake in Bonnaroo, the four-day camping and music festival featuring Eminem, Lil Wayne, The Black Keys and Beirut, to name a few.
Detox in Dallas, Texas, a few days later with Adele at the House of Blues on June 15. Stick around until at least the 18th, when the Dallas Museum of Art, the Crow Collection of Asian Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center will team up to host their annual summer block party, including outdoor concerts and films, performances and after-hours tours of all three museums.
Check the oil in your car before you continue to push west, because you don't want to miss big things happening on the West Coast. If you can make it to Santa Barbara, Calif., for its Bollywood Party on June 21, so much the better; if not, just be sure you're in Las Vegas, Nev., by June 24. Otherwise, you'll miss the annual Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), which is essentially a three-day dance party (read: rave) that has the largest attendance of any electronic dance festival outside of Europe. As any rave frequenter knows, events like EDC are about far, far more than the featured musicians or DJs, regardless of what big name acts might come. Instead, they're about wearing tutus and electric blue boots, giving strangers hugs and basking in the cloyingly sweet glow of the raver's credo, PLUR (Peace, Love, Unity, Respect).
If you survive EDC (we think you will — you made it through senior week alive), then your options are wide open. You can hang around on the West Coast until the Burning Man festival in Black Rock Desert, Nev., which starts on Aug. 29, or you can speed back to Boston to celebrate the Fourth of July (fireworks are definitely artsy). Either way, this road trip will be a landmark experience for you as you move forward in the world, and maybe even a cultural enhancer worth discussing with your new, grown-up friends at your new, grown-up job — though it might be best to gloss over some of the finer points of the Electric Daisy Carnival and Bonnaroo.
