After being jilted by the Corcoran Gallery last year, the University of Maryland has found a new partner in the arts — the Phillips Collection. [...] The institutions plan to create academic courses — from art and art history to arts management, cultural diplomacy and conservation — for its undergraduate and graduate students and to offer extended-studies courses and seminars for the community. 

Gospel singer Roy Smith Mwatia better known Rufftone has been re-appointed Republic of Korea’s goodwill ambassador for public diplomacy. [...] the reason the Korean embassy re-appointed the legendary singer to the post was because of the role he played in influencing Kenyan youth positively and due to the passion for the task he (Rufftone) showed the previous year.

Over the last two decades Ms. Kouoh has become one of Africa’s pre-eminent curators and art managers through a combination of a relaxed demeanor, a sharp eye, a gift for languages (she is fluent in French, German, English and Italian, and knows some Russian) and a keen interest in all aspects of the arts. 

In his native South Africa, Noah's debut was widely hailed as a smash hit, with South Africa’s foreign minister taking time out of her schedule at the United Nations General Assembly to visit the comedian in his new New York studio. Having a South African host the show, said Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, is not funny business - it’s cultural diplomacy.

Despite sharing many cultural affinities, Indonesia and Malaysia have had a checkered relationship over the past 50 years […] but underneath the tensions, there are lessons Jakarta can learn, and these may help explain why Indonesia’s soft power is not yet at the level it ought to be. 

With a dizzying flurry of oil paints, watercolors, silkscreen & monotype printing techniques, charcoal, and ink, artist Nelson Makamo captures the daily life of South African children as reflected in their charismatic faces. […]Makamo has exhibited in numerous group and solo shows in South Africa, France, Italy, the U.S., The Netherlands and Scotland over the last few years.

The world famous street artist Banksy announced Monday that the materials used to construct his dystopian “Dismaland” theme park will be donated to a refugee camp in Calais, France. The park’s timber and fixtures will be repurposed for shelters, the artist wrote on Dismaland’s official website.

The State Department says it’s losing the information war to ISIS—and is tapping HBO, Snapchat, and a screenwriter with deep CIA connections to help turn things around.