There may be no better place for an art exhibition about migration than a former train ticket office. Don’t miss Burlington artist Elliott Katz’s first museum solo show, “The Purpose of Your Trip,” at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center’s Ticket Gallery. Katz has made subtle tweaks to the space, replacing drawer pulls on wood cabinets with cast-bronze versions of barber tools — replicas of ones his grandparents used in their New Jersey business before they were forcibly moved to a Japanese internment camp in 1942. Katz transforms items that speak to family, history, work and displacement, such as a pair of shovels twisted into a DNA-like double helix. Other objects — replicas of his son’s soccer ball, his U.S. passport — are damaged and repaired with gold using the Japanese technique called kintsugi. Those pieces reference the fear inherent in having a cross-border family today, especially one with inherited trauma. Katz articulates his history with a beautiful command of craft, effortlessly working wood and metal into story form. Though government policies may try to restrict free movement, Katz’s creativity is unfettered.
‘Elliott Katz: The Purpose of Your Trip’ On view through March 6 at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center.
This article appears in Love & Marriage Issue • 2026.
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