Join us for this fascinating event with presentations and debate on international cultural relations.
This event is the first in a series of two. It is linked to previous RSA events;
- "The Heritage Game", held in conjunction with the Italian Cultural Institute in Scotland on the book written by the late Sir Alan Peacock and Professor Ilde Rizzo
- MCICH’s successful November 2018 day conference entitled Advancing Cultural Relations
- A recent event entitled Festivals, Tourism and Events
This event is the first of two further sessions the MCICH Steering Group has devised for early 2022, with the second event following on 9 March (Keep an eye on both Eventbrite and LinkedIn for further details!).
Through this first session speakers will explore some of the emerging evidence and approaches to cultural international relations drawing on examples from the British Council's Seasons and Festivals together with the British Council / DCMS Cultural Protection Fund. The event will explore how taking a cultural relations approach through arts and cultural international programmes can help achieve diplomatic outcomes.
Questions in advance, from anywhere in the world are welcome and should be sent to networks@rsa.org.uk no later than 12:00 noon UK time on Monday 7 February. This is so they may be collated by theme. If posing a question please be sure to indicate your full name and work position and, as relevant, organisation, institution and nation state.
Speaker biographies:
- Ian Thomas is the current global Head of Evidence for the Arts at the British Council, leading on the evaluation and research of the British Council’s global arts programmes particularly looking at the evidence base around arts, cultural relations and soft power. Ian’s recent work includes the evaluation of Creative Europe funding in the UK, exploring a wide range of social, economic and artistic impacts across the funding programme in the UK and also the evaluation programmes such as the UK’s Cultural Protection Fund. Ian has written and presented a number of papers exploring arts and soft power. Ian is a former International Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California exploring evaluation approaches to art and soft power. Prior to his work at the British Council, he worked for Telford & Wrekin Council in the UK leading the development on a number of cultural and music education programmes. Previously, he worked for Arts Council England. He is a graduate of both the University of Liverpool and the University of Durham, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a former Royal Society for the Arts Evidence Champion.
- Professor JP Singh is Professor of International Commerce and Policy, Schwartz School of Policy and Government, George Mason University. Known for his interest in diplomacy he is Richard von Weizsacker Fellow with the Robert Bosch Academy, Berlin. He is a past adviser/consultant with the World Bank, WTO, British Council and UNESCO on international cultural policies. He is past chairman and Professor of Culture and Political Economy and Director, Institute for International Cultural Relations (IICR) at the University of Edinburgh. He has also taught in Geneva, Switzerland and Jyvaskyla, Finland. Author of five monographs and five books, he has also written many scholarly articles. His latest book is “Cultural Value in Political Economy”.
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