Jeff Crosby, an American curator of an art gallery in Kunming of Yunnan Province in southwest China, has been dedicated to promoting Chinese art and culture to the global stage.

Since his arrival in the border province as an exchange student in 2000, Crosby has partnered with leading Chinese artists to introduce their works overseas as a translator.

Five years ago, he became deputy director of the Contemporary Gallery Kunming, a private non-profit art institution, and he regarded it as an opportunity for him to deeply explore the province's traditions and Chinese art.

"You can just find everything here. You can find a touch of southeast Asia, you can also find a touch of, say, the ancient Jiangnan region (region south of the Yangtze River) and these amazing works of carpentry. And the thing that I really like about it is a lot of these traditions are still thriving today," he said.

During the past five years, he has projected some 20 innovative exhibitions, including one featuring mushrooms, the food Yunnan is famous for, which gathered different forms of mushroom art from various countries.

With the goal to help Chinese art and artists to gain greater international recognition, Crosby co-organized an exhibition on traditional Yunnan architecture in Washington D.C. in May.

"It would be really good to get more of these exchanges happening again, get them back on track, get more people coming back and forth, more Chinese culture going to America, more American culture coming to China," he said.

At a time when China-U.S. relations are tough, Crosby plans to facilitate more art exchanges like a "cultural ambassador," as he believes art is a way to enhance mutual understanding.

"We can even have nation-to-nation various disagreements. I mean, it's a large, complex relationship. But I think that all the time, there is never an excuse to stop trying to understand each other. And I think that in fact, at this time, we need it more," said Crosby.