David Paul Schafer has worked in the cultural field for more than fifty years as an author, educator, administrator, and advisor.  He was originally trained as an economist and taught the principles of economics, international development, and the history of economic thought at Dalhousie University and Acadia University before entering the cultural field.

Paul was Assistant Director of the Ontario Arts Council from 1967 to 1970, a founder and director of the Graduate Program in Arts Administration at York University from 1970 to 1974, and Coordinator of the Cooperative Programme in Arts Administration and the Cooperative Programme in International Development at the University of Toronto from 1984 to 1990.  He has taught arts administration and cultural policy at several universities in North America, written many articles and books, and undertaken several missions for UNESCO throughout the world, conducted major projects and assignments for Canada’s Department of External Affairs (now Global Affairs Canada), and assisted many other organizations in Canada and other parts of the world.

In 1989, Paul created the World Culture Project which he directs today.  Believing that humanity has only scratched the surface of the rich potential that culture and cultures possess to play a crucial role in the world of the present and the future, development of this project has led to numerous publications on this matter.  Included here are such books as: Culture – Beacon of the Future; Revolution or Renaissance: Making the Transition from an Economic Age to a Cultural Age; The Age of Culture; The Secrets of Culture; The Cultural Personality; Will This Be Canada’s Century?; The True North: How Canadian Creativity Changed the World; Culture and Politics in Canada: Towards a Culture for All Canadians; The Arts: Gateway to a Fulfilling Life and Cultural Age, and The World as Culture: Cultivation of the Soul to the Cosmic Whole published in 2022.

His latest book is The Great Cultural Awakening: Key to an Equitable, Sustainable, and Harmonious Age which was published in January, 2024.  In it, Paul makes the case that humanity should enter a cultural age in the future in order to  come to grips with the life-threatening and dangerous problems that exist in the world today as well as create much more happiness, equality, peace, order, sustainability, and stability in the future.

Paul is deeply committed to the centrality of culture, cultures, the arts, humanities, and creativity in global development and human affairs.