A traveling exhibition is underway to celebrate the fifteen years since the salon¿s creation. Initially inaugurated at the Antioquia Museum in the city of Medellin on September 6, the exhibition has been at Bogotá¿s Mint House of the Central Bank of Colombia since November 20 where it will remain until January 15, 2008. From Bogota it will move to the Museum of Modern Art in Barranquilla from January 31 to March 20. It will finally be on display at the La Tertulia Museum of Modern Art in Cali, from April 24 to June 21. This salon was created in 1993 at a time when spaces showcasing young art were non existent. This competition made it possible for beginners in the art world, who used painting as their main expressive technique, to participate. Well known artists like Karen Cook, winner of the Salon¿s first prize, along with Carlos Jacanamijoy (another participant of the first competition) and other outstanding painters like Oscar Danilo Vargas, Sahir García, Martha Rivero, Libia Posada, Esteban Villa, Boris Sánchez and David Peña affirm the importance of this contest in Colombia¿s cultural life. The salon has been the nation¿s artistic jumping off point for 15 years. While only paintings were accepted for many years, in 2006 the Salon expanded its reach with the help of La Fundación Amigos de las Colecciones del Banco de la República (The Friends of the Central Bank Collections Foundation) to include artists from other genres and approaches. Carlos Betancourt, curator of this exhibit for the second year running, has defined it as ¿a place of contextual interchange among different regions of the country and a space that allows diverse projects to develop. It is a stage that showcases tensions between regions and a type of operating room where conflicts are resolved within works of art¿.