The Cultural Olympiad of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will launch on the weekend of Friday 26 – Sunday 28 September with hundreds of events taking place across the country, including Wales.
Plans for the Cultural Olympiad, launched by London 2012 today include:
Inspired by the founder of the modern Olympic movement, Pierre de Coubertin’s idea of a marriage of sport and the arts, the Cultural Olympiad is designed to celebrate Olympic and Paralympic values in the cultural field. Over £40 million has already been earmarked for cultural activities across the United Kingdom that will create a welcome to the world for the 2012 Games. It will highlight the country’s diversity by using both culture and sport to create works and events that will bring people and places together, encourage audiences to take part, involve and inspire young people, and create a lasting legacy.
The launch weekend is themed ‘Open Weekend’ with cultural organisations across the country kicking off the celebrations for the Cultural Olympiad with many institutions and organisations offering the public the chance to see or take part in something which is happening as a special event, or that would normally take place behind the scenes.
The weekend is designed to fulfil the commitment that the London 2012 Games will involve and inspire everyone in the UK and across the world. The programme also includes projects which have been awarded the Inspire mark, recognising the quality and diversity of the work of large and small organisations around the country which would otherwise not be able to take part. This will be first for any Olympic organising committee, leading the way for other host cities after London to adopt this more national and inclusive approach.
'Open Weekend’ events are taking place across Wales. Highlights include:
(These events are detailed in full below.)
Central to the Cultural Olympiad are:
Inspire mark projects - The London 2012 Inspire mark is awarded to outstanding surprising, exciting, and brand new cultural projects inspired by London 2012 and recognised as helping to deliver the Games’ lasting legacy. The first project to be awarded the Inspire mark in Wales is Criw Cymru Urban Dance performances, reaching young people across Wales, especially those from disadvantaged rural and urban communities. The project connects the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff; Galeri (Caernarfon), North Wales; Theatr Brycheiniog, Brecon and Sadler’s Wells, London to produce new work lead and performed by young people. There is a bilingual version of the Inspire mark, English/Welsh, and Criw Cymru is the first project to use it. (Full details below.)
Major projects - Ten, new, major cultural projects on a national scale covering all aspects of arts, culture and heritage from disability arts, film and theatre through to music heritage, and carnival. The major projects will have significant impact in the nations and regions throughout the four years and generate long-term benefit to the culture of the UK. They are summarised below:
The Cultural Olympiad is a partnership between the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), arts and cultural organisations across the UK, and London 2012 stakeholders. There is a Creative Programmer to curate a programme of activities in each nation and region of the United Kingdom. Gwyn L Williams is the Creative Programmer for Wales.
Sebastian Coe, Chair of LOCOG, said: 'In our bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012, our promise was and still is to make our Games accessible to everyone. To build on the vision of Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the Modern Olympic movement, by having a Games that inextricably links sport, culture and education. Open Weekend and the cultural programme over the coming four years, shows our commitment to this.'
Jude Kelly, Chair, Culture, Ceremonies and Education, London 2012, said: 'Working together with this country’s great artists and institutions, we will ensure that we have a programme that will inspire participation, enable everyone to get involved and unleash the creative talents of young people across the whole of the UK.'
James Turner, Interim Chief Executive, the Arts Council of Wales, said: 'Five Olympic medals at the Beijing Games, including three gold, has caught the imagination of people all over Wales and has raised a great deal of interest in the Cultural Olympiad. Wales has a distinctive cultural contribution to make to the four years which lead up to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London. We look forward to engaging with all of our young people during the Cultural Olympiad and the launch weekend features a celebration of contemporary dance and music,storytelling and young people making giant puppets.'
LISTINGS
The Cultural Olympiad events and activities for Open Weekend 26 – 28 September 2008 across Wales are listed below. Further details of Cultural Olympiad events, major projects and Inspire mark announcements will be announced soon and can be found here.
INSPIRE MARK PROJECTS
Criw Cymru
Organised by the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff. This inspirational urban arts project will reach young people across the whole of Wales and connect Wales with London by working in partnership with Galeri (Caernarfon) in North Wales; Theatr Brycheiniog, in Brecon, and Sadler’s Wells, London. Participatory workshops for young people begin in September 2008 and an August 2009 summer dance school for young people will lead to a unique piece of work being created to be performed at the Wales Millennium Centre’s 5th birthday celebrations in October 2009 and the annual Sadlers Wells urban arts festival. Criw Cymru reaches young people from disadvantaged rural communities, from minority groups in the city and also in Communities First areas of the North West of Wales.
Criw Cymru will develop young people’s urban arts skills as they work alongside outstanding professionals. Participants of the summer school will have demonstrated their skills and excellence in the areas of MCing, Beatboxing and urban/hip hop dance. High profile guest urban artists (of the likes of Jonzi D, Blue Boy and Benji Reid) will work with the young people to build specific performance skills, whilst guests from related fields will teach related techniques- for example, an opera coach might teach breathing techniques to MCers, whilst an athlete might give nutrition coaching to hip hop dancers. The summer school will be able to benefit from the creative expertise of WMC’s eight resident organisations, as well as draw tutors from Cardiff based national institutions including the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, and the Welsh Institute of Sport.
OPEN WEEKEND EVENTS IN WALES, IN DATE ORDER:
Autumn: Silver
Theatr Gwynedd, F-fordd Deiniol, Bangor, Wales, LL57 2TL
26 September 7.30pm
Admission: Box Office 01248 351 708 or www.theatrgwynedd.co.uk
Genre: Performing Arts
Join the celebrations as Diversions’ sensational dancers perform a sparkling double-bill created for the 25th anniversary of the National Dance Company of Wales. Full of energy and excitement, this glorious evening of dance features works by two dynamic international choreographers. Discover hip choreographer Stephen Petronio’s work performed by Diversions, Prelude & Strange Attractors Part II that combines captivating dance, music from Placebo, vocals from David Bowie and costumes by Ghost’s Tanya Sarne. Following his hugely successful Practice Paradise the bold Belgian choreographer Stijn Celis brings his latest trade mark groundbreaking dance to the stage. Created with the Diversions team, this spellbinding entertainment combines the music from the legendary James Brown and a little electro. Yes, Stijn is back! If you have seen Diversions before you know what delights are waiting for you. If this is your first time you are in for a treat!
www.diversionsdance.co.uk
Criw Cymru Urban Arts Performances
Wales Millennium Centre, Tesco Stage, Plas Bute, Bae Caerdydd CF10 5AL
26 September-27 September Friday 2.00pm and Saturday 4.30pm
Admission: Free
Genre: Performing Arts
Wales Millennium Centre present Criw Cymru urban arts performances by young people from around Wales as part of the Cultural Olympiad launch weekend.
wmc.org.uk
Wales Millennium Centre lights up!
Wales Millennium Centre, Plas Bute, Bae Caerdydd CF10 5AL
26 September-27 September 8.00pm
Admission: Free
Genre: Heritage or museums or galleries
Wales Millennium Centre takes part in the cultural Olympiad launch by lighting up the iconic inscription on the front of the building in a London 2012 colour!
wmc.org.uk
North Wales International Music Festival
St Asaph Cathedral, High Street, St Asaph, Wales, LL17 0RD
26 September-28 September
Various, see website for details
Admission: Box Office 01745 584508 or at www.northwalesmusicfestival.co.uk
Genre: Music
An exciting week of vibrant concerts and workshops spiced with a soupcon of folk music and seasoned with a soupcon of jazz. Artists this year include Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; BBC National Orchestra of Wales; Julian Lloyd Webber, John Lill CBE and Emma Johnson MBE; Llyr Williams; Dame Gillian Weir and many more.
www.northwalesnusicfestival.co.uk
Mabinogion
Theatr Harlech & Harlech Castle, St Davids Hill, Harlech, Gwynedd, LL36 2PU
27 September 10.00am - 3.00pm
Admission: Free
Genre: Performing Arts
Join Carnival artists to create a giant rod puppet of one of the characters from. The Mabinogion- Wales’ greatest saga. The completed creation will then be processed up the hill to Harlech Castle to start the 10 month project where extraordinary stories will be retold by ordinary people in an extraordinary setting.
www.theatrharlech.com
-Ends-
Further launch information can be downloaded here.
For media Creative Programmer, Wales:
Gwyn L Williams 0796 71 61 766
gwyn.l@artswales.co.uk
For media queries on the Cultural Olympiad:
William Kallaway, Kallaway, 020 7221 7883, will.kallaway@kallaway.co.uk
Emma Lawson, Kallaway, 020 7221 7883, emma.lawson@kallaway.co.uk
Rebecca Miller, Media Adviser Culture at LOCOG,
0203 2012 251
Rebecca.Miller@london2012.com
- Four years of cultural celebration, excellence and participation
- Inspire mark awarded to a Welsh project, the first to use the bilingual version of the mark (details below).
- Major national projects
Inspired by the founder of the modern Olympic movement, Pierre de Coubertin’s idea of a marriage of sport and the arts, the Cultural Olympiad is designed to celebrate Olympic and Paralympic values in the cultural field. Over £40 million has already been earmarked for cultural activities across the United Kingdom that will create a welcome to the world for the 2012 Games. It will highlight the country’s diversity by using both culture and sport to create works and events that will bring people and places together, encourage audiences to take part, involve and inspire young people, and create a lasting legacy.
The launch weekend is themed ‘Open Weekend’ with cultural organisations across the country kicking off the celebrations for the Cultural Olympiad with many institutions and organisations offering the public the chance to see or take part in something which is happening as a special event, or that would normally take place behind the scenes.
The weekend is designed to fulfil the commitment that the London 2012 Games will involve and inspire everyone in the UK and across the world. The programme also includes projects which have been awarded the Inspire mark, recognising the quality and diversity of the work of large and small organisations around the country which would otherwise not be able to take part. This will be first for any Olympic organising committee, leading the way for other host cities after London to adopt this more national and inclusive approach.
'Open Weekend’ events are taking place across Wales. Highlights include:
- Free performance at the Wales Millennium Centre by Criw Cymru Urban Arts featuring young people from around Wales.
- North Wales International Music Festival at St Asaph.
- The Mabinogion-Wales’ greatest saga at Harlech Castle. Get involved in a ten month cultural programme of storytelling.
- Autumn: Silver – Diversions’ dancers perform a sparkling double-bill celebrating 25 years of the National Dance Company of Wales.
(These events are detailed in full below.)
Central to the Cultural Olympiad are:
Inspire mark projects - The London 2012 Inspire mark is awarded to outstanding surprising, exciting, and brand new cultural projects inspired by London 2012 and recognised as helping to deliver the Games’ lasting legacy. The first project to be awarded the Inspire mark in Wales is Criw Cymru Urban Dance performances, reaching young people across Wales, especially those from disadvantaged rural and urban communities. The project connects the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff; Galeri (Caernarfon), North Wales; Theatr Brycheiniog, Brecon and Sadler’s Wells, London to produce new work lead and performed by young people. There is a bilingual version of the Inspire mark, English/Welsh, and Criw Cymru is the first project to use it. (Full details below.)
Major projects - Ten, new, major cultural projects on a national scale covering all aspects of arts, culture and heritage from disability arts, film and theatre through to music heritage, and carnival. The major projects will have significant impact in the nations and regions throughout the four years and generate long-term benefit to the culture of the UK. They are summarised below:
- Artists Taking the Lead – 12 cutting edge artists’ commissions across the UK
- Stories of the World – a national network of exhibitions telling new stories in new ways
- Sounds – a four-project approach to celebrating music as a universal language
- Somewhereto – a project empowering young people to find somewhere to practice their sport and culture on their terms
- Discovering Places – opening up the historic and built environment to new audiences
- Film Nation – a programme designed to get young people behind the camera and explore their world and dreams
- The World Shakespeare Festival - will celebrate Shakespeare as an international property and the British as an international people centring on exchange and collaboration
- Festival of Carnivals – five linked and themed street Carnivals in the Olympic period
- Unlimited – a sequence of local and national festivals and events devoted to work by disabled people in all art forms and all sports
- World Cultural Festival – an international arts festivals as the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad in 2012
The Cultural Olympiad is a partnership between the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), arts and cultural organisations across the UK, and London 2012 stakeholders. There is a Creative Programmer to curate a programme of activities in each nation and region of the United Kingdom. Gwyn L Williams is the Creative Programmer for Wales.
Sebastian Coe, Chair of LOCOG, said: 'In our bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012, our promise was and still is to make our Games accessible to everyone. To build on the vision of Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the Modern Olympic movement, by having a Games that inextricably links sport, culture and education. Open Weekend and the cultural programme over the coming four years, shows our commitment to this.'
Jude Kelly, Chair, Culture, Ceremonies and Education, London 2012, said: 'Working together with this country’s great artists and institutions, we will ensure that we have a programme that will inspire participation, enable everyone to get involved and unleash the creative talents of young people across the whole of the UK.'
James Turner, Interim Chief Executive, the Arts Council of Wales, said: 'Five Olympic medals at the Beijing Games, including three gold, has caught the imagination of people all over Wales and has raised a great deal of interest in the Cultural Olympiad. Wales has a distinctive cultural contribution to make to the four years which lead up to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London. We look forward to engaging with all of our young people during the Cultural Olympiad and the launch weekend features a celebration of contemporary dance and music,storytelling and young people making giant puppets.'
LISTINGS
The Cultural Olympiad events and activities for Open Weekend 26 – 28 September 2008 across Wales are listed below. Further details of Cultural Olympiad events, major projects and Inspire mark announcements will be announced soon and can be found here.
INSPIRE MARK PROJECTS
Criw Cymru
Organised by the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff. This inspirational urban arts project will reach young people across the whole of Wales and connect Wales with London by working in partnership with Galeri (Caernarfon) in North Wales; Theatr Brycheiniog, in Brecon, and Sadler’s Wells, London. Participatory workshops for young people begin in September 2008 and an August 2009 summer dance school for young people will lead to a unique piece of work being created to be performed at the Wales Millennium Centre’s 5th birthday celebrations in October 2009 and the annual Sadlers Wells urban arts festival. Criw Cymru reaches young people from disadvantaged rural communities, from minority groups in the city and also in Communities First areas of the North West of Wales.
Criw Cymru will develop young people’s urban arts skills as they work alongside outstanding professionals. Participants of the summer school will have demonstrated their skills and excellence in the areas of MCing, Beatboxing and urban/hip hop dance. High profile guest urban artists (of the likes of Jonzi D, Blue Boy and Benji Reid) will work with the young people to build specific performance skills, whilst guests from related fields will teach related techniques- for example, an opera coach might teach breathing techniques to MCers, whilst an athlete might give nutrition coaching to hip hop dancers. The summer school will be able to benefit from the creative expertise of WMC’s eight resident organisations, as well as draw tutors from Cardiff based national institutions including the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, and the Welsh Institute of Sport.
OPEN WEEKEND EVENTS IN WALES, IN DATE ORDER:
Autumn: Silver
Theatr Gwynedd, F-fordd Deiniol, Bangor, Wales, LL57 2TL
26 September 7.30pm
Admission: Box Office 01248 351 708 or www.theatrgwynedd.co.uk
Genre: Performing Arts
Join the celebrations as Diversions’ sensational dancers perform a sparkling double-bill created for the 25th anniversary of the National Dance Company of Wales. Full of energy and excitement, this glorious evening of dance features works by two dynamic international choreographers. Discover hip choreographer Stephen Petronio’s work performed by Diversions, Prelude & Strange Attractors Part II that combines captivating dance, music from Placebo, vocals from David Bowie and costumes by Ghost’s Tanya Sarne. Following his hugely successful Practice Paradise the bold Belgian choreographer Stijn Celis brings his latest trade mark groundbreaking dance to the stage. Created with the Diversions team, this spellbinding entertainment combines the music from the legendary James Brown and a little electro. Yes, Stijn is back! If you have seen Diversions before you know what delights are waiting for you. If this is your first time you are in for a treat!
www.diversionsdance.co.uk
Criw Cymru Urban Arts Performances
Wales Millennium Centre, Tesco Stage, Plas Bute, Bae Caerdydd CF10 5AL
26 September-27 September Friday 2.00pm and Saturday 4.30pm
Admission: Free
Genre: Performing Arts
Wales Millennium Centre present Criw Cymru urban arts performances by young people from around Wales as part of the Cultural Olympiad launch weekend.
wmc.org.uk
Wales Millennium Centre lights up!
Wales Millennium Centre, Plas Bute, Bae Caerdydd CF10 5AL
26 September-27 September 8.00pm
Admission: Free
Genre: Heritage or museums or galleries
Wales Millennium Centre takes part in the cultural Olympiad launch by lighting up the iconic inscription on the front of the building in a London 2012 colour!
wmc.org.uk
North Wales International Music Festival
St Asaph Cathedral, High Street, St Asaph, Wales, LL17 0RD
26 September-28 September
Various, see website for details
Admission: Box Office 01745 584508 or at www.northwalesmusicfestival.co.uk
Genre: Music
An exciting week of vibrant concerts and workshops spiced with a soupcon of folk music and seasoned with a soupcon of jazz. Artists this year include Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; BBC National Orchestra of Wales; Julian Lloyd Webber, John Lill CBE and Emma Johnson MBE; Llyr Williams; Dame Gillian Weir and many more.
www.northwalesnusicfestival.co.uk
Mabinogion
Theatr Harlech & Harlech Castle, St Davids Hill, Harlech, Gwynedd, LL36 2PU
27 September 10.00am - 3.00pm
Admission: Free
Genre: Performing Arts
Join Carnival artists to create a giant rod puppet of one of the characters from. The Mabinogion- Wales’ greatest saga. The completed creation will then be processed up the hill to Harlech Castle to start the 10 month project where extraordinary stories will be retold by ordinary people in an extraordinary setting.
www.theatrharlech.com
-Ends-
Further launch information can be downloaded here.
For media Creative Programmer, Wales:
Gwyn L Williams 0796 71 61 766
gwyn.l@artswales.co.uk
For media queries on the Cultural Olympiad:
William Kallaway, Kallaway, 020 7221 7883, will.kallaway@kallaway.co.uk
Emma Lawson, Kallaway, 020 7221 7883, emma.lawson@kallaway.co.uk
Rebecca Miller, Media Adviser Culture at LOCOG,
0203 2012 251
Rebecca.Miller@london2012.com
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