Nelson Mandela's fight against apartheid was never his battle alone. This stunning new Canadian Museum for Human Rights exhibit honours the efforts of resistance, from freedom fighters to brave children to Canadian activists. There are five chapters to the exhibit, that allow visitors to interact with iconic moments in Mandela's journey.

The City of Brampton has a new, ambitious vision for the future of culture in Brampton; the city's first Cultural Master Plan was designed by the consulting team of Lord Cultural Resources and Nordicity, and guided by a Steering Committee of community cultural leaders. In total, more than 3,500 residents and visitors representing a wide variety of stakeholder groups were engaged to voice their thoughts on arts and culture in Brampton. The City remains committed to the continuous engagement of these creators and communities as a valued part of Brampton’s cultural ecology.

"To me, there is nothing more gratifying than seeing people experience a museum, exhibit, or event. To see how they move through the space, react to the stories and how they interact with each other," says Yvonne Tang, Director of Exhibitions and Events at Lord Cultural Resources. Yvonne recently travelled to Iceland to see the opening of the Perlan Museum's latest exhibit; read all about her experience and learn some helpful tips for your visit to Iceland. 

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights in partnership with the University of Winnipeg offered an immersive course that provided organizational leaders with tools to build respectful workplaces. More than a dozen Indigenous leaders, activists, educators and scholars led participants through presentations and discussions that explored best practices for creating inclusive workplace cultures. 

Museums are spaces where communities are served and represented. The Museum Association of the Caribbean is issueing a call for proposals that investigate the relationships between museums and their communities. They will welcome presentations, posters, workshops, panel discussions, or five-minute lightening talks. Proposed contributions should address the main theme, and may relate to any of the following sub-themes:  

• Fostering Disaster Resilient Communities
• Museum Education for Social Inclusion and Cohesion
• Exhibiting Migration and Gender
• Investment and Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Museums
• Technology and Innovation for Global Accessibility

Halifax, Nova Scotia is one huge step closer to developing a cultural hub on their waterfront; the hub would include the province's art gallery and art college. Lord Cultural Resources provided a study that said: “It is an opportunity to transform a parking lot on the waterfront of Halifax into a dynamic destination for creative innovation and contribute to the profound transformational changes remaking the city.”

Did you miss the 2018 Soft Power Destinations Salon in London? It's not too late to join the discussion on using soft power to stimulate the creative economy! Watch the video online.

Currently, twenty percent of graduate students who are studying internationally are attending school in the U.S. This could be considered a powerful tool; studies show that an individual who has had a first-hand experience with a country and their values is more susceptible to their soft power. 

Despite escalating political turmoil, the A.M. Qattan Foundation (AMQF), a major Palestinian cultural foundation, is preparing to open a new cultural center to the public. At 7,700 sq. m, the venue has more than double the space of the Palestinian Museum and will house art studios, exhibition spaces, classrooms, a library, a small theatre and a restaurant, as well as offices. There are serious challenges to overcome in order to finalize the center; money, the Israeli occupation, candidates for employment, and shipping artwork are just a few barriers that AMQF are working quickly to address. 

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is set to open an exhibit that displays work by an iconic Indian photographer, who is considered a pioneer of colour photography. He has also been posthumously accused of sexual assault. 

The ROM has announced that they will simultaneously open an exhibit on the #MeToo movement. The display has the potential to open the conversation about sexual assault and gender equality, and how museums engage with works created by artists facing allegations of sexual misconduct.

The #MeToo movement hit the world last October, following an exposé on film producer Harvey Weinstein. This leaves museums and galleries with the dilemma of how or whether to show work by alleged, or confirmed, abusers. There is no standard, accepted institutional response to these situations; but the worst thing a museum can do is ignore it and hope it will go away. 

It would not be unusual to see a piece of Indigenous heritage in a museum far away from its origins; even so far as on the other side of the world. A museum located near Millbrook Mi’kmaq First Nation was displaying a printed replica of regalia- regalia that was actually on display in a museum in Australia. This prompted the drafting of bill C-391; a national strategy for the repatriation of Indigenous cultural property.

We have all heard the saying "walk in someone else's shoes"; this summer, twelve female immigrants take that phrase literally. Originally a writing workshop, this project gives these women a platform to discuss their transition to Canada through a specific lens. 

One of the artists, Nima Bolow, says incorporating shoes into her story about fleeing Somalia 10 years ago was akin to taking a personality test: “Once we recognize the importance of shoes in our life, it taught me who I am as a person. I’ve learned how I am connected to my tradition and my shoes represented the choices I made, what my values and priorities are.”

The Tsuut'ina Cultural Museum may help bridge the gap between the Tsuut'ina First Nation 145 and the city of Calgary. The museum will act as a place where members of both communities can come to learn and share, and hopefully gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of another. 

Architecture and design critic Oliver Wainwright recently published a book exploring the architecture of Pyongyang, North Korea. Completely rebuilt after the end of the Korean War in 1953, the city is the grand vision of the country's first leader, Kim Il Sung, and contains many intriguing buildings. In this article, Wainwright discusses seven of, what he considers to be, the most interesting areas he photographed. 

Danish architectural firm, Schmidt Hammer Lassen, has just released plans to build a maritime education centre. The dockside site will be transformed into an educational facility for marine engineering research, survival training and business development. The design will incorporate a 19th century hydraulics tower, and pay homage to the heritage of the existing building.

Discover how ancient wonders are being recorded and remembered. The World Monuments Fund (WMF) in partnership with Google has gathered online exhibitions and stories that showcase efforts to preserve Iraq`s built heritage. Launched on the Google Arts & Culture platform, the project includes drone footage of ancient sites and structures like the ziggurat in Borsippa; 3D models of now lost architecture, like Babylon’s famous Ishtar Gate; and documentation of sites that have been damaged or destroyed, including Nimrud, Hatra and Mosul.

The Anne Frank House Museum has added a new feature - virtual reality technology that allows visitors to experience the Secret Annex the way it would have looked in 1942, with excerpts from Anne`s journal playing through the headset. 

“The real Secret Annex is empty,” explains Executive Director, Ronald Leopold. “The furniture was removed by order of the Nazis after the arrest of the eight people in hiding...It is difficult to imagine what the hiding place looked like with furniture, and how cramped it was.” With the new VR technology, visitors can fully immerse themselves into the space, which Leopold hopes will, “help to encourage reflection on the dangers of anti-Semitism, racism, and discrimination and the importance of freedom, equal rights, and democracy.”

A new exhibit is opening at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) that celebrates the power of Inuit art. Tunirrusiangit, by Kenojuak Ashevak and Tim Pitsiulak, is making history as the first time Inuit art has been shown in the AGO's largest exhibition space. The gallery is transformed by an atmospheric, immersive video projection; a life-sized qarmaq (traditional house) made of newspaper articles; and Inuktitut descriptions of the work on the walls alongside the English descriptions.

In our last edition of Cultural News, we shared an article about an Emily Carr painting being renamed, with the intention of improving cultural sensitivity; the conversation continues as the question of authority arises: who has the right to change a name chosen by an artist? How do you create an equilibrium between censorship, historical revisionism, and political correctness?

The Glasgow School of Art, an art deco landmark, may be beyond repair after suffering its second devastating fire within four years. The building, widely considered to be a masterpiece, was badly damaged in 2014; the meticulous £35m restoration was almost complete when the second fire hit. Architects and artists are raising concerns about the structure of the building; artist Steven Cox said: “Could the building even be structurally sound after a second major fire?The most important conservation project in the last 100 years, the beating heart of our city, the most symbolic romantic building in Scotland, allowed to die. A terrible reflection of the poverty of our time.”

Despite a threatened economy, travel ban, and a drop in currency, the art market in Iran is branching out. Iran`s first ever art fair, Teer Art, opened this month in Tehran; eleven Iranian galleries that specialise in contemporary art contributed. In the past five years, the number of galleries in Tehran have grown from less than ten to one hundred and fifty. Interest in Iranian art has been growing in the West, with auctioned art earning more than £10m more than any other Middle Eastern country.

With the growing popularity of ordering merchandise online, traditional shopping centers (specifically downtown malls) are seeing a decline in sales. Traditional retail certainly is not dead, but malls and centers may discover a benefit, or need, to revitalize their space. In order to adapt to the changing market, Suburban Square in Pennsylvania has made a switch to offer experiential commodities rather than physical ones.