The proposal, centered around the traveling exhibition, was for a celebration of Latino culture that would include art, music, dance and food. The intentions of the celebration were to: convey and celebrate the rich traditions of the Latino community; demonstrate the variety of traditions within the community; and initiate a dialogue about the role of art in our everyday lives. The arts would provide an access point to greater understanding of one’s own culture and ethnicity. One of the long term goals of the celebration would be to build new and meaningful ties with the Latino community that could result in annual cultural celebrations.

Undeniably, the pivotal point to the success of this celebration would be forming a diverse, well-connected planning committee. The Museum and Memorial felt competent to execute the exhibition, but knew the full celebration would be successful only if a diverse representation from the local Latino communities served on this planning committee. Realizing their limitations in even identifying appropriate representation from the local Latino community, Susan recruited certain Museum board members to meet with some Museum and Memorial staff to provide guidance in developing a planning committee and to make some initial decisions regarding the celebration. The Museum had also decided to host a companion exhibition featuring local artist, Ramiro Rodriguez and an exhibit of works by local Latino youth. Both of these additional exhibitions would add to and enhance the traveling exhibition since they would highlight a regional professional artist and local student art.

The pre-planning group suggested names of appropriate members of the Latino community who would make excellent contributions and should be invited to join a Planning Committee.

Recruitment for the Planning Committee came from several directions. Susan tapped a member of the Latino community who serves on the Museum board of directors and he, in turn, recruited several others. Maritza Robles, Bi-lingual coordinator for the South Bend Community School Corporation was asked by Rick Strickland to identify Latinos from the education community. Reg recruited Latino individuals from the surrounding areas where Memorial has a presence, particularly LaPorte, Elkhart and Goshen. Together, the sixteen Latinos on the committee represented diversity in geography, culture and ethnicity. In addition to the Latinos, four Museum staff and Reg and Rick from Memorial served on the committee. (A complete list of committee members may be found at the end of this paper.)