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Interested in infrastructures for preventive diplomacy and conflict mediation, Tyler Russell has spent much of his career inspired by art’s capacity to kindle empathy, build community and provoke change. During his undergrad years, working with NGOs in former Yugoslavia, he gained an appreciation for art’s role in moderating conflict. After graduation, he ran a Korea-Japan Arts Camp and was subsequently invited to work on large-scale contemporary art exhibitions in Asia. Imagining these as sites for intercultural understanding, he saw them utilised as arena for inter-state soft power competition. These experiences informed his Masters thesis Dancing at the End of Pax Americana: Contemporary Art and International Relations in North East Asia. More recently, working for Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, a public art gallery in Vancouver’s Chinatown, he’s become a keen observer of Chinese soft and sharp power strategies. For his PhD, Russell will examine the role of private philanthropy in contemporary Chinese cultural diplomacy. Through this research, he seeks to gain a better understanding of Chinese soft power, while considering broad-based infrastructures for conflict mediation in the emergent era. Russell holds a BA in International Development Studies from Dalhousie University and an MA from Tokyo National University of Arts. He completed his post-graduate internship at the Pearson Peacekeeping Training Centre and has worked for organisations including International Ocean Institute, Municipality of Nakatsue, and samuso: space for contemporary art. He’s outgoing Executive Director/Curator of Centre A, incoming Executive Director of Rotary Centre for the Arts in Kelowna, BC and 2018 Curator-in-Residence at Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei.