London 2012 outlines vision for Cultural Olympiad

 

• First funding partners announced, including £9 million investment from Youth Music
• Legacy Trust UK to work in partnership with the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG)

London 2012 today outlined plans for the largest-ever Cultural Olympiad and a major investment from Youth Music at a business briefing for the arts and cultural sector at London's Southbank Centre.

Speaking to an audience of 500 arts and cultural professionals from all over the UK, Bill Morris, Director of Culture, Ceremonies and Education for London 2012, outlined the structure that will enable everyone – from leading national organisations to individual artists and performers – to get involved with the four year Cultural Olympiad.

At the centre of the Cultural Olympiad are a UK-wide Cultural Festival and ten major projects which are being created in partnership with the BBC, MLA (Museums Libraries and Archives Council), the UK Film Council and the Arts Councils of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Over 4,000 representatives of the cultural sector in London and the UK have been involved in discussions about the form, purpose and ambition of the Cultural Olympiad and it is their views that have shaped and will continue to shape these major projects.

The ten major projects will comprise:

• Film and Video Nation: a UK-wide, four-year festival including a young people’s filmmaking competition and a mass social observation of life in the 21st century
• International Exhibitions Programme: International curators will work with communities in UK to re-discover and re-interpret existing collections
• Artists Taking the Lead: The creation of great art in unusual places - twelve artists' commissions in twelve contrasting public spaces
• 2012 Sounds!: exciting, participative music projects around the UK from 2008-2012, providing an unprecedented opportunity for young people to work alongside great musicians
• International Shakespeare Festival: using the inspiration of Shakespeare as the world’s poet, a range of new creative collaborations across the cultural sector
• Live Sites: a network of permanent and temporary giant screens, taking London 2012 into the very heart of the UK’s towns and cities
• Celebration of Disability Arts and Sports: a one day festival during the Paralympic Games which will celebrate Paralympic sport alongside disability arts and include education opportunities for families and spectators
• 2012 Carnival: the bridge between the closing of the Olympic Games and the opening of the Paralympic Games in 2012
• World Cultural Festival: a celebration of the cultures of the all Olympic nations that will visit London to take part in the Olympic and Paralympic Games
• World Festival of Youth Culture: Exploring how young people can celebrate the Games through art, music and fashion

In addition to these programmes, there will be a four-year UK-wide Cultural Festival starting in the summer of 2008. Supported and led by a network of Creative Programmers, the UK Cultural Festival will encompass thousands of national, local and regional events as part of the nationwide celebrations to mark the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.

Bill Morris also gave early details of the non-commercial mark that will give official London 2012 endorsement to sporting, community and Cultural Olympiad projects. It will be a special mark of endorsement to be awarded to exceptional not-for-profit projects, large and small, inspired by London 2012 and that will have a real impact on the legacy of the Games. This is work in progress, but the mark will be available to use in a limited way from the start of the Cultural Olympiad in August 2008.

The non-commercial mark will be very clearly part of the official London 2012 brand family and is likely to share the same famous shape with adaptations for use in the cultural sector. This will allow the impact of the 2012 Games to extend further than any previous games and underpins the vision that London 2012 will be 'Everyone's Games'.

Also speaking at the ceremony, Christina Coker, Chief Executive of Youth Music, announced an investment of £9million towards youth-inspired and youth-led music making. She outlined three principal programmes:

• Grass Roots: 2,000 community music making projects during 2010-2012 specifically celebrating the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games
• United in Song: the largest ever 'World in Song' Youth Choir and a Singing Challenge Week
• Ozones – Sky High Music: a collaboration of 400 of our most talented young musicians in creative music making, song writing and performance

Dugald Mackie, Chair of the newly-formed Legacy Trust indicated their commitment to work with LOCOG to develop projects that could be part of the Cultural Olympiad.

"Working together in partnership," Bill Morris said, "we will create a four-year cultural festival, the first time any host city has created a Cultural Olympiad as inclusive and as far-reaching as London 2012. In Britain today 200 different ethnic communities speak a total of 300 languages. This makes London the most culturally diverse and exciting city in the world. The Games are an opportunity to celebrate this diversity by developing new creative cultural collaborations and relationships that will last beyond the Olympic and Paralympic Games."

Secretary of State for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport the Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP commented: "Winning the right to stage the Games in 2012 was always about more than simply hosting a few glorious weeks of sporting excellence in five years' time.

"London 2012 will place the whole of the UK in an international spotlight from the moment the flag passes to us at the end of the Beijing Games. The Cultural Olympiad is absolutely central to our vision and to what we can achieve.

"So my challenge to you all is to show what it is possible to achieve by culture, through culture and for culture, and to grasp the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity we all have."

Mayor of London Ken Livingstone said: "The 2012 Games are a tremendous opportunity for London to display why it is the world leader not only in finance but in culture and creative industries.

"London's population reflects every nationality and culture from around the globe and this feeds its own long historic culture and creativity. Whilst sport will be at centre stage, the London Games will see the most creative, diverse and colourful programme of cultural events ever seen at London's famous landmarks in its streets, squares and parks. The summer of 2012 will be a once in a lifetime unique cultural celebration for every Londoner and for every visitor to the city."

– Ends –

For further information please contact the London 2012 Press Office on +44 (0)203 2012 100

Find out the latest from London 2012 HQ on our Work in Progress blog http://blog.london2012.com

Read more about the Cultural Olympiad