Last month's 2012 Barnett Symposium Cultural Soft Power: Policy, Practice and the Arts explored arts-related cultural policies and programs of a number of countries. The symposium, held at the Urban Arts Space in downtown Columbus and hosted by the Department of Art Education, opened with a keynote speech by the Honorable James A. Leach, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The symposium helped to improve our understanding of how the arts contribute to advancing the interests of nations, the relations between nations and their peoples, and the creative engagement of artists across cultures. Many students and local arts administrators came together with artists, cultural policy officials, and cultural policy scholars to explore these issues drawing examples from countries and programs across the globe including the US, France, the UK, India, Canada, Brazil, Chile and China.