South Hadley, MA---Political and collegiate leaders from throughout the Valley will come together with representatives of the civic, hospitality, and tourism industries at a reception at the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum to mark a new collaborative effort including the museums of the Five Colleges and other leading area museums. The invitation-only reception will take place starting at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 14. The reception coincides with the showing of Diane Arbus: Family Albums---an keynote exhibition devoted to the work of one of America's premier photographers.

The eleven museums working together to attract tourists to the region---as well as to enhance their programming for area students and residents---are the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, the Hampshire College Art Gallery, the National Yiddish Book Center, the Mead Art Museum, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, the Pratt Museum of Natural History, the Dickinson Homestead, the Evergreens, the University Gallery of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Historic Deerfield, and the Smith College Museum of Art. More information about the collaboration is on the web at www.fivecolleges.edu/museums/