Cultural Diplomacy
Perched on the stage of Al Hakawati, Jerusalem's largest theatre, four authors from the Palestine Festival of Literature shared turns reading excerpts from their texts...For patrons and participants, the idea of the festival was clear: To bring foreign writers to Palestine, and to have them interact with a Palestinian audience.
America's new Iraqi Cultural Center occupies a slice of rented office space above an AT&T store, overlooking a Five Guys and a Hair Cuttery and a bustling Connecticut Avenue in the capital of the country that scuffed and dinged some of Iraq's antique furniture during its 2003 invasion and resulting tenancy. Washington: Capital, also, of Irony.
A workshop of the Asia-Europe Meeting in Vietnam demonstrated the growing international importance of contemporary and classical Chinese culture. At a recent international cultural workshop held in Vietnam, almost all participants, ranging from officials to NGO workers, from artists to cultural experts, found themselves engaged in projects related to China. "Chinese art and culture are becoming more and more fashionable. There is great interest in China on all levels," says Airan Berg, former artistic director for the performing arts of the European cultural capital, Linz, Austria 2009.
Haitian artists and cultural professionals have been conducting informal salvage operations for the past four months. But the Americans are bringing conservation expertise — there are few if any professionally trained art conservators in Haiti — and special equipment, much of it paid for by private money.
The Department of Arts and Culture will host a Cultural Diplomacy conference on 21-22 May 2010 in Pretoria, South Africa...The theme is "Redefining the Role of Culture in the 21st century". The main focus of the conference is to open opportunities to share ideas and exchange knowledge with prominent thinkers on issues of cultural diplomacy.
As part of the plan, DCI seeks to "create French influence" through academic and training courses, Rotrubin said. Instilling an appreciation of the language and culture, the company's leaders believe, will confer a competitive advantage for French products, and DCI hopes graduates might later draw up specifications that reflect the French training.
China wants to teach the world its language and culture, and Ms. Zheng is one of about 325 guest teachers who have volunteered to work for up to three years in American schools, with their salaries subsidized by the Chinese government. A parallel effort has sent about 2,000 American school administrators to visit China at Beijing’s expense.
In late March, twelve students from the Masters in Public Diplomacy (MPD) program at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism participated in a weeklong conference in Dubai as part of a student exchange with the American University in Dubai's (AUD) Mohammed Bin Rashid School for Communication (MBRSC).