Cultural Diplomacy

Mark Bradford, one of America’s most acclaimed painters, could not figure out what to put in the grand rotunda. This artist, who is set to represent his country in May at the 2017 Venice Biennale, found an unusual way of working long-distance. In a warehouse in South Los Angeles, not far from where he grew up, he created a full-size model of the Biennale’s United States pavilion, a stately building with echoes of Monticello. Then he spent the last year testing out his ideas in it.

Marcello Dantas, a renowned Brazilian curator celebrated not only for producing exhibitions, but also involved in filmmaking and opera production, talks about Japan House Sao Paulo and his plans as its director of programming and chief curator. [...] Japan House is a place to inspire people with the contemporary ideas that Japan has developed. Those ideas can be artistic, design-focused, architectural, technological, environmental, social, political or traditional. 

In one of the most remote communities in Australia, young filmmakers are sharing their stories and the world is watching. [...] Their videos capture snippets of life in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands, in central Australia. It's a closed Indigenous community, open to few visitors. There's also no mobile phone reception and few homes have access to the internet. Leo says the short clips have captured the attention of viewers in many far off places.

At the stringing table, most of the women wear hijabs. Natives of Syria, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, they have been in the U.S. less than two years, arriving in Houston through Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston's refugee services program. They speak Arabic, Farsi, Pashto or Dari. Which is to say, they sometimes speak with each other only slightly better than they can talk with me.

Northeast students from different universities, colleges of the region gathered to witness the fusion of northeast diversified culture with the rich culture of Punjab. Besides, promoting the culture, traditional dresses and designs etc of the northeast region, the event also aimed at unifying students through cultural exchange.

Bollywood’s global popularity and the ‘Cool Japan’ initiative are highlighted in this week’s roundup. 

An app that connects global publics to performing arts.

The PPEM will allow the two countries to exchange information, identify common objectives and strategies and create opportunities for people in both countries to benefit from the sharing of social, cultural and economic capital across government, academia, business and civil society.

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