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.

As research fellow at Het Nieuwe Instituut, Shoshan has focused on the progressive way that the Netherlands contributes to UN peacekeeping missions.  [...] By linking cultural research to architectural research, the Dutch submission to Venice aims to make visible the spatial challenges and opportunities of this complex situation.

“The Baking Show” doesn’t just present a static, zombie image of an ideal Britain that can never exist. It defines the nation in a dynamic, living way. [...] For instance, it can provide the nation with its first genuine hijab-wearing celebrity — no small thing in a year where the dominant narrative throughout the West has been the increasing marginalization of Muslims from public life.

Some have called it “dargah diplomacy”; you could also describe it as the trans-border politics of pilgrimage. By whatever name it goes, the welcome emphasis on “religious tourism” is one of the more interesting features of renewed engagement between India and Pakistan. 

Local films are going abroad in a cultural diplomacy project by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). Sent to Singapore's diplomatic missions that express an interest, the traveling package comprises 10 feature-length and 10 short films. [...] The ministries partnered the National Museum of Singapore's Cinematheque department to curate the list, with each chosen film representing a significant development in Singapore's film landscape.

A longtime Las Cruces schoolteacher spent part of her summer in a small village in Albania, working with the Fulbright Association and Cultural Heritage Without Borders to restore historic, Ottoman-era mansions that have fallen into disrepair.

Last 30th of September, the French and Dutch ministers of Culture announced publicly the join purchase by the Louvre and the Rijksmuseum of a pair of portraits by Rembrandt. A premiere in the history of museology, and a new step in European non-governmental relations.

Three main strands run through the narrative: learning Japanese, creating camaraderie with Keio University students, and acquiring extropy. That ambassadors come and go is a truism. Yet, precious few make a permanent mark on the country and people where they are accredited. Aftab Seth is one such scholar-diplomat.