A colourful performance of Turkish folk dances and music will be held in [New Delhi] Nov 1 and 2 to mark the national day of Turkey. The dances, by the Hacettepe University Folk Dances Group, are being presented by the embassy of Turkey in cooperation with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).

Hallyu, or the Korean Wave phenomenon, has helped put South Korea on the map as a modern Asian nation with much to offer culturally. But has it brought economic gains to the nation?

China will enhance its cultural soft power in the 2011-2015 period, according to a document of the Communist Party of China (CPC) issued Wednesday. ...A public culture service system should be basically established with the emphasis in grassroots rural areas and central and western regions, it said.

Officials in Georgia harbor ambitions of turning the South Caucasus country into a global cultural center, but those plans took a big hit when a deal to bring the New York Philharmonic to Tbilisi imploded recently. Now, Georgian officials are scrambling to repair the damage done to the country’s image.

In the past, the United States has sent artworks abroad to leverage its soft power. Most famously sending Abstract Expressionist paintings to Soviet-threatened Europe as a symbol of American freedom during the Cold War. Now, instead of dispatching art, the State Department has announced that it will launch the artists themselves.

More than 190 countries and 50 organizations are represented at the event, which has had at least 52 million visitors thus far. Of those 52 million, there are roughly 160 American college students working at the U.S. pavilion in the Student Ambassadors Program run by the University of Southern California. The event runs through the end of October.

Taiwan has been trying to raise its international profile with the goal of becoming a full member of the world community even though its relations with mainland China have improved over the past year, the British Broadcasting Corporation has reported.

But under a new $1 million program being announced this week, the Obama administration is planning to expand its cultural diplomacy programs to include visual artists like painters and sculptors, who will be asked next year to create public art projects in 15 foreign countries.