Buddhist associations from both Taiwan and the Chinese mainland were involved in a gesture heavy with symbolism on Thursday. Taiwan’s Ling Jiou Mountain Buddhist Society brought a Tara Guanyin statue to Putuo Mountain, one of China’s four Buddhist mountains. A total of 27 monks and 374 pilgrims from Taiwan accompanied the statue which is a smaller version of Ling Jiou Mountain’s iconic Guanyin statue. It will be placed in Putuo Mountain, and the gesture marks deepening exchanges.

On Saturday, after several weeks of preparation, six student poets from the D.C. Youth Slam Team and three adult poetry teachers are scheduled to leave the District, bound for Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, then on to the city of Tshwane, where they plan to participate in a two-week cultural exchange focused on poetry and social justice. The students and teachers are scheduled to meet youth poets, activists and writers in South Africa who are engaged in the movement to build a better society.

The handsome young man in the bow tie fell to his knees and kissed the ground. Just a few moments later he was composed in front of the camera. “A revolutionary is not just the one carrying the rifle,” he said. “It is the paintbrush of an artist, the scalpel of a surgeon, the axe of the farmer.” Talent show winners are not known for the wisdom of their metaphorical outpourings. But the winner of this year’s Arab Idol had more to say than the usual contestant.

Ten Saudi artists will be among 365 others from around the world who will be part of an attempt at creating the world’s largest painting in Morocco later this year. Artists from 26 countries will travel to Morocco on June 29 to take part in brainstorming sessions and discussions about the proposed painting, which will run until July 7. The Saudi artists are being sponsored by Arabian Wings in partnership with Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives (ALJCI).

Chinese officials have lifted a ban on Tibetan monks displaying photographs of the Dalai Lama at a prominent monastery, a rights group said on Thursday, an unexpected policy shift which could ease tensions in the restive region.

Increasing U.S.-Iran cultural exchanges could lay the groundwork for better relations between the two countries, believes a prominent think tank here, despite the prevalence of stereotypical memes of the United States as the “Great Satan” and Iran as part of the “Axis of Evil”.

The Embassy of Malta and the Culture Diplomacy Fund in cooperation with The Malta Film Commission organized on the 17 of June 2013 an event entitled ‘CineMalte – les possibilités d’une Ile’. This was the first time ever that such a cultural activity promoting the Maltese cinematographic industry was held in Paris.

The International Association of Music Colleges and Universities (IAMCU) has launched to facilitate global collaboration between schools to 'best equip students for future success'. The three founding schools are: The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance in London, England, LAMA College for Music Professional in Los Angeles, USA and Academia de Música Fermatta in Mexico City & Guadalajara, Mexico.