Exhibiting Diplomacy: Art and International Cultural Relations in Canada

Elizabeth Diggon

Art and visual culture can be used as a powerful tool in the facilitation of international relations and the promotion of state policies and initiatives. In this lecture, Elizabeth Diggon will examine some of the ways in which Canadian state institutions have utilized art as an expedient for cultural diplomacy from the postwar era onwards, drawing attention to the existence of a broader system of Canadian cultural diplomacy and its connections to networks of cultural and political power in the Western world. She will lend particular focus to the ways that Canadian institutions have attempted to leverage the symbolic capital of contemporary art to foster improved relations with other geopolitical areas while simultaneously negotiating a Canadian cultural identity for international consumption. 

April 17th, 2015 at 7-8pm