History
Discover India Day is one of six Cultural Heritage Days offered by the Discovery Center each year. It is our most well-established Cultural Heritage Day with a solid volunteer-based that has been built over the past twelve years. Some of these long-standing volunteers comprise our Cultural Advisory Board. All decisions about Discover India Day are vetted and approved by the Cultural Advisory Board.
Discover India Day is one of our highest attended events in the entire year. It is free for the community to attend (we do not charge admission on Cultural Heritage Days), and we usually see between 900-1000 guests.
Rangoli drawn by one of our volunteers at the museum entrance 
A volunteer demonstrates how to play the veena 
A volunteer leads guests in creating “mala” flowers with cupcake liners 
The new marigold decorations were very appreciated by our guests and volunteers 
These girls choreographed and performed their own Bollywood dance 
A guest dances with the Bollywood performers 
Guests added their wishes to Banyan Tree 
A volunteer leads guests in sculpting Diwali pinch pots 
A guest shows off her mehndi henna 
Guests play chess – a game that originated in India
Key Responsibilities
As the Community Engagement Coordinator, my key responsibilities for the festival included:
- Creating a sample schedule of events and slate of activities to be approved by the Cultural Advisory Board
- Consistently communicating with the Cultural Advisory Board about all decisions made in regard to the event
- Determining and purchasing all necessary supplies for the activities
- Setting-up and taking down the decorations and activity spaces
- Coordinating museum staff during the event
- Managing a team of 20+ volunteers on the day of the event
- Tracking and recording attendance numbers
- Maintaining financial records and staying on budget
Specific Contributions
Beyond my key responsibilities, I took actions to specifically solve challenges and elevate the event, such as:
- Rebuilding our entire collection of cultural decorations and materials within budget (all of the supplies from previous events were destroyed due to poor storage)
- Creating an “Activity Bible” that compiled all of the activities that have been created by the Cultural Advisory Council over the past five years to better document and track their contributions
- Creating a guest-facing “passport” that relayed all of the major event details and provided an interactive activity (see below)
- Writing and designing table tents that relayed cultural information and activity instructions for the guests (see below)
