London 2012 blog

I am very excited by the fact that Open Rehearsal will be one of the core projects in London for the launch weekend of the Cultural Olympiad on 26th - 28th September. Open Rehearsal is a pan-London project that aims to engage audiences with culture by offering them a whole range of 'behind the scenes' activities. Over these three days, arts venues all over city will open their doors for a packed programme of rehearsals, backstage tours, workshops, master classes, talks and debates.

Because Open Rehearsal aims to open doors, engage audiences, encourage participation and learning as well as promote London’s phenomenal cultural offer and resources I believe it is a great fit with the aspirations for the Cultural Olympiad programme as it encourages and inspires people to open themselves up to new experiences, be it the organisations or the audiences.

Open Rehearsal is run as a joint initiative between Greater London Authority and Visit London and was conceived on the basis that culture is and should be for everyone. There are barriers to this as the notion of culture can sometimes seem out of reach to many. It has developed successfully because we continue to add new initiatives, work with new partners and broaden the scope of activities to help break down these perceived barriers.

Read more of “Opening the doors of culture”