Culture without Borders

Facinating article in 'The Australian' by David Elliott, artistic director of the 17th Biennale of Sydney, about the false division of culture. He writes, "The myth of cultural supremacy and separation is one of the great hoaxes of history, a discipline that until very recently was little more than propaganda, written by victors. The unsettling truth is that people, images and things have always moved vast distances across the world." Click here for the full article.

U.S. Dept. of State Launches Online Video Contest

The U.S. State Dept., in conjunction with the Adobe Foundation, have launched an online video contest to amplify U.S. public diplomacy using web-based outreach campaigns and social media platforms. The “My Culture + Your Culture = ? Share Your Story” video contest is part of a Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) initiative to encourage cross-cultural community building and mutual understanding via the web and social media platforms. The contest also highlights the newly designed website, exchanges.state.gov, which is a portal to ECA’s Facebook page and its ExchangesConnect social network (connect.state.gov).

The Department of State invite members of the ExchangesConnect online community to submit a short video (up to 3 minutes) on the contest’s theme. Video submissions will be accepted December 1, 2008 to January 26, 2009. The ExchangesConnect community will vote on video entries and an expert panel of judges, all ECA exchange alumni, will rank the “top 40” videos. Two foreign and two American winners will be selected by ECA. International winners will be eligible for a two-week all-expenses paid exchange trip to the United States; the American winners will receive the same to an overseas destination.

South Korea's Long-Term Cultural Strategy

South Korean Culture Minister Yu In-chon said he will formulate a long-term overseas promotional strategy to boost the global popularity of Korean culture. Long-term planning invariably means a bigger budget in promoting Korean culture. Yu said the plan is on the drawing board, adding that the action program will eventuate early next year.

Yu mentioned the on-going Korea Festival in Brussels, Belgium as a good example of promoting Korean culture overseas. The minister of culture, sports and tourism said the event is gaining huge popularity in Brussels because it shows the essence of Korean culture ― not only traditional culture, but also food, fashion and other things. He added preparations took two years. A similar event will be held in Petit Palais, Paris in 2010.

For the Americas and Europe in which Korean culture is relatively unknown, the government will take a more aggressive promotion strategy. It will expand multi-cultural exchange programs with East Asian countries through ASEAN to introduce diverse Asian cultures. He said the comprehensive Korean cultural promotion policies would be completed by 2012. Read the full Korea Times article here.

Culture360

Created for and fuelled by artists, cultural practitioners and policy makers, Culture360 is a platform to inform, collaborate, interact and exchange ideas with the arts and cultural communities across Asia and Europe. Culture360 aims to stimulate the cultural engagement between Asia and Europe and enhance greater understanding between the two regions.

Culture360 is the only multidisciplinary arts and cultural online portal with a focus on Asia and Europe. As a reference tool, and a place for dialogue, this exciting new portal will take cultural cooperation within and between Asia and Europe to a whole new level.