The London 2012 Culture team is working closely with colleagues throughout the arts and heritage world to push cultural projects to their limits. And beyond.

New opportunities will be created to inspire young people and encourage participation from communities across the UK and around the world.

The structure of the Cultural Olympiad

The Cultural Olympiad divides into three sections:

Mandatory Ceremonies

Delivered by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), these will be extraordinary live spectacles watched on television by one in three people around the world.

The ceremonies and events for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games will include:

• Handover Ceremonies at Beijing 2008
• Torch Relays
• Team Welcome Ceremonies
• Medal Ceremonies
• Closing Ceremonies in 2012
• Olympic Youth Camp

Major and bid projects

A number of major cultural projects featured in the London 2012 bid. The world-class cultural events form the initial backbone of the Cultural Olympiad:

• Film and Video Nation
• Stories of the World - international exhibitions programme
• Artists Taking the Lead
• 2012 Sounds
• Shakespeare Now
• Live Sites
• Extraordinary ability - Disability arts, culture and Sport
• Festival of carnivals
• World Cultural Festival
• Young Futures
• Access All Areas

NB: These are all still working titles and will be finalised prior to public launch in 2008.

We expect more ideas for major projects to come forward over the next few years so that the broadest range of our creative talent is featured. This includes the science communication and engagement, dance, and archive sectors, who are already working up ideas to add to those listed above.

UK cultural programme

The 2012 Games and the celebrations leading up to them will not just take place in the many communities of London, or just through the big national institutions.

We are committed to spreading the benefits as far as possible across the UK over the four years from summer 2008 - the Cultural Olympiad will include hundreds of local and regional events as part of our UK-wide celebration.

These celebrations will be supported and led by the network of Creative Programmers.

Creative Programmers

We have a network of ’Creative Programmers’ with support from Regional Cultural Consortia, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and other cultural and regional agencies. There’s one for each of the English regions, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales with the London team joining soon. They will all have a particular focus on supporting local and regional projects.

The Creative Programmers are ready to talk about your ideas.  Find out more