It also launched a presidential committee to set and implement detailed goals and action plans. The 22-strong panel now chaired by art director Pyo Jae-soon held its first meeting with newly appointed members on Dec. 16. Park, for her part, has proven to be the nation’s top culture ambassador herself on the world stage. 

In the small, isolated town of Timbiquí, located on the banks of one of the many winding rivers in Colombia’s Pacific region, there isn’t much for kids to do. [...] To try to counter this, USAID’s Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Program (ACIP), in partnership with Fundación Tiempo de Juego, is implementing a powerful tool: the soccer ball. 

From the World Service to the Queen and even Norman Wisdom, Britain punches above its weight in the soft power stakes. [...] But the global soft-power reach of the UK is a phenomenon all on its own.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi was welcomed at the Russian Exhibition Centre ahead of his address at the Friends of India conclave with Sanskrit shlokas by a local singer on Thursday, it signalled that the two sides were keen to push soft diplomacy. 

Stacy and Kevin Schworm’s Christmas dinner this year could include pig ears. [...] The Schworms are among dozens of area exchange students and hosts who will exchange more than gifts this holiday season. They’ll also exchange Christmas food traditions, incorporating a bit of each in their celebrations.

Muscat International Book Fair 2016 will begin from February 24 and continue until March 5, 2016, the organisers said. [...] The earlier editions of the fair were attended by more than 570 publishers from 25 countries, who were allocated integrated halls for children’s literature, which allowed them to conduct multiple activities for literature lovers.

Dana Gioia, chairperson of the National Endowment of Arts, said, "There's no American alive who has done more extensive and effective cultural diplomacy than Dave Brubeck". He was even chosen to thaw Cold War tensions, being asked to play for a series of summits between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Shahzia Sikander and Jim Shaw are two artists who keep accounts of the visual tropes that faith-based systems employ to disseminate, legislate and perpetuate the cultural codes prescribing and proscribing human behavior, yet react to these systems by breaking up the prescribed regiments that religious imagery imposes.