Author: Center for Arts and Culture

Publication Year: 2003

Media Type: Report

Summary:

The portrayal overseas of American democracy, values and culture is at an all-time low. According to one poll after another, perceptions around the world about America continue to sink.

Abstract:

The portrayal overseas of American democracy, values and culture is at an all-time low. According to one poll after another, perceptions around the world about America continue to sink. If American values are misunderstood, or even poorly understood, by the rest of the world, what are our leaders and public institutions doing about it? The Center for Arts and Culture commissioned five papers in the spring of 2003 to explore varying aspects of the contemporary state of U.S. cultural diplomacy, which has been defined as “the exchange of ideas, information, art, and other aspects of culture among nations and their people in order to foster mutual understanding.” Paradoxically, official support for exchanges of people and culture has decreased by nearly 20 percent from 1992 to 2002. Yet at the same time, we are asking more of the apparatus of public diplomacy to rectify the U.S. image abroad.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Cultural Diplomacy and Exchange