Our project, Toronto’s City Diplomacy: Arts, Culture, and Heritage, brings together scholars and practitioners in the cultural disciplines to consider how the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) engages in cultural diplomacy and cultural networks locally and globally. With Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival (Hot Docs) as our non-profit partner, this project examines how the business of international cultural relations is conducted by non-state actors, such as artists, ensembles, arts and cultural practitioners and programmers, and cultural institutions, in tandem with the political and cultural work of the local government. Using Toronto’s creative and cultural sector and its members as a case study, Toronto’s City Diplomacy: Arts, Culture, and Heritage examines the external and potential models of cultural relations work to determine best practices and establish actionable strategies that organizations such as Hot Docs can implement. This project seeks to chart a new course in city diplomacy to recognize the importance of culture – and the work of artists, ensembles, arts and cultural practitioners, cultural institutions and municipal officials in cultural services – in a city’s global cultural relations.