...[There] are a few faces looking less than confident about what comes next. Barbra Taylor, from Hawaii, and Terry Goldsmith, from Bury, Greater Manchester, are two of them. They're not Muslim, but guests for nine days. This is part of "Muslim for a Month" - a programme from social enterprise group The Blood Foundation where participants get to "test-drive" a religion.

''Festival of India, a two-month long extravaganza exploring Indian culture, has been launched here with a performance by fusion musician Abhijit Pohankar and local group Medumo. The Festival is part of the South Africa-India Programme for Cultural Co-operation which the two countries were committed to during the SA-India Joint Ministerial Meeting which was held in India in March 2011.

The Maasai Cultural Exchange Project has published a children's book that bridges the miles between Africa and America, much as the group's mission of bringing water and education to Maasai women and children has for years.

Seven years later, Jankowski’s vision of a collaborative cultural exchange between the sister cities is finally about to become a reality, as the Jakarta-Berlin Arts Festival kicks off in Germany on Saturday.

The Aspen Institute Global Initiative on Culture and Society and the newly built state-of-the-art Royal Opera House Muscat (ROH Muscat) of the Sultanate of Oman have announced their strategic partnership and the planning of an unprecedented ROH Muscat - Aspen Creative Arts World Summit to be held in Muscat, Oman, November 28-30, 2011.

Timed to coincide with the lead-up to the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup as well as the 40th anniversary year of Title IX, the initiative builds on Clinton’s vision of “smart power diplomacy” to harness the full range of diplomatic tools at the nation's disposal — in this case international soccer exchanges — to advance United States foreign policy goals and foster greater understanding.

In the downtown theater, the Goh Ballet Youth Academy was debuting its latest production, Lamour, a three-act ballet that the troupe will be taking to China in late August and September for a series of shows to promote friendship and cultural exchange between the two countries.

In a rare cross-cultural collaboration, two classical-music groups from Cuba and the United States will engage in a multiyear partnership that will include American musicians performing in Havana.