Once again the debate about the arts and their relationship to the economy has been enjoined, this time in the UK. The terms are by now entirely familiar, and certainly loom in any discussion of the “value” of the arts in the U.S. as well. This is particularly true for the U.S. during recessions and periods of fiscal austerity.

At the end of this year, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art will present a major survey—“Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China” (10 December-6 April 2014). Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, the planned M+ museum is seeking a specialist contemporary ink curator. Hong Kong, in fact, has been the cradle of the new ink movement since the mid-20th century.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the African Union - formerly the Organisation of African Unity, BBC World Service listeners suggested the African songs that summed up the continent to them.

A Japanese contemporary art exhibition themed ‘Yayoi Kusama- Obsessions’ will be held at the Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Hanoi from May 25-July 28 to mark Japan-Vietnam Friendship Year 2013.

Mawazine Festival strives to reveal and showcase the cultural diversity of Morocco and the rest of the world. The rich program of this 12th edition, within the same spirit, will dedicate the best part to the meetings between the public and the artists through many initiating workshops.

With the aim of promoting Asian art and cultural exchange, the organizer also invited 16 local artists from different generations to present Macau art ecology’s “today and tomorrow” through a hundred artworks. At “Being Asia” about sixty artworks by thirty-five young Korean and Japanese artists have been selected from twenty reputable galleries to reflect the changing Asian societies and cultures.

The house has held exhibitions of work by the students of Prague's Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, as well as students of the Prague British School. The Václav Havel Library held a two-day international seminar on the grounds during which participants discussed philosophical issues connected with the concept of human rights in today's "post-European" world.

"In Japan, we do not see poster art anymore and its cultural relevance is fast diminishing," says Yusuke Matsuoka, Director, Arts and Cultural Exchange at the Japan Foundation, who brought the exhibition to India.