Prompted by the Department of State’s Division of Cultural Relations, the first Conference on Inter-American Relations in the Field of Art was held on October 11 and 12, 1939, with the aim of deploying art to improve relations between the United States and Latin American nations. Part of the U.S. government’s efforts to increase its influence in the Western Hemisphere and also to counter the proliferation of fascism during World War II, the State Department called on museum directors, curators, artists, and other arts professionals in the United States to advise its staff by drafting recommendations for art and cultural exchange programs to be supported by the division. The proceedings of both the conference and the continuation committee—comprised of the individuals who, over the course of meetings held on February 15–16, 1940, devised a program of inter-American dialogue emphasizing publications, student and educator exchanges, and exhibitions—reveal a number of significant themes and debates, including the substantial interest in Latin American Native and pre-Columbian art in the United States; the question of how the United States should represent its own culture (folk and industrial arts were two areas of emphasis); and the question of whether the United States should pursue a collaborative approach by soliciting information about Latin Americans’ interest in U.S. culture or even pursue a paternalistic one by determining what is “best” for Latin American audiences without the benefit of such counsel. Excerpts of both documents are taken from their original publications. [“Conference on Inter-American Relations in the Field of Art,” October 11–12, 1939, Analysis and Digest of the Conference Proceedings (Department of State, Washington, D.C., 1940), 1–31; “The Continuation Committee of the Conference on Inter-American Relations in the Field of Art,” Minutes of the meeting of February 15–16, 1940 (Department of State, Washington, D.C., July 1940), 1–16, Appendix 1, Appendix 2].