Between Public Diplomacy and Nation Branding: a New Way of Thinking the Internationalization of Canadian Culture

The Sym­po­sium on the Role of the Arts and Cul­ture in Pub­lic Diplo­macy held by the CCA on Novem­ber 22, 2007, clearly demon­strated a con­sen­sus among the art and cul­ture sec­tor con­cern­ing the impor­tance of inter­na­tional activ­i­ties for Cana­dian artists. How to best achieve this goal was, and remains, the main point of dis­cus­sion. Many del­e­gates at the Sym­po­sium stressed the need for bet­ter coor­di­na­tion between the var­i­ous play­ers in this field, the impor­tance of main­tain­ing strong net­works world-wide, and the neces­sity to take advan­tage of new tech­nol­ogy. How should Canada use its resources to fos­ter the inter­na­tion­al­iza­tion of its artists?

Dur­ing the last decade, a num­ber of coun­tries have adopted the con­cept of Nation Brand­ing to con­trol their image. Is this a valu­able approach? Is this what the US gov­ern­ment is try­ing to achieve through its renewed inter­est in cul­tural diplo­macy? Pan­elists will dis­cuss new per­spec­tives and new mod­els for spread­ing Cana­dian cul­ture abroad.