Seb Coe launches London 2012 Open Weekend 2009, supported by BP

London 2012 Open Weekend enables everyone to share in the excitement of the Games, be inspired, get involved, unleash creativity and try something new. Join the celebrations, plan your weekend: www.london2012.com/openweekend 

The London 2012 Open Weekend, created by London 2012, is supported by BP, the Premier Partner of the Cultural Olympiad. London 2012 Open Weekend will take place every year in July.

Example events include Body in Action tours at the National Gallery, learning to sing on the Singing Bus in Belfast, carnival and public theatre in Wales, family dance workshops led by disabled and non-disabled dancers and sporting opportunities across the UK (highlights below).

This year’s London 2012 Open Weekend follows the success of last year’s event which launched the Cultural Olympiad and enabled over 700,000 people to become part of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. 

London 2012 Chairman Sebastian Coe said: 'We’ve always been clear that London 2012 is about more than just sport, we want to create a Games for the UK and Games that are accessible to everyone. We created Open Weekend as part of the Cultural Olympiad, to enable people to share in the countdown celebrations towards London 2012 but also be inspired by the Games to discover new interests and develop their talents.

'Open Weekend is part of our vision for the Games to inspire lasting change. The fantastic range of Open Weekend events provide opportunities for everyone to access excellence across sport, art and culture and try something new. The Games are thriving across the UK and we are grateful to the organisations that have partnered with us to make Open Weekend happen.'

Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell said: 'Open Weekend is a great way for people inspired by the Olympics to get involved and this year there is a wider range of activities than ever before. Whether you love culture or are sport mad there's something for you to do in your region. This is just one way we are delivering a lasting legacy across the country from the 2012 Games.'

London Mayor Boris Johnson said: 'In the summer of 2012 the whole country will come together to celebrate the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The London 2012 Open Weekend is about gearing us up for this incredible moment and encouraging everyone to get involved in sports and culture. I wish all the participating organisations great success.'

Peter Mather, Head of BP in the UK said: 'BP is delighted to become the Premier Partner of the Cultural Olympiad. We have an excellent track record for supporting the arts in the UK and we want to help build further synergies between sports and the arts in the run up to the 2012 Games. We are already working closely with LOCOG on our plans as the official Tier 1 oil and gas partner and adding the cultural arm to these activities is something to which we are looking forward.'

Be inspired at London 2012 Open Weekend

Many events recognised through the London 2012 Inspire programme are also involved in Open Weekend. The London 2012 Inspire programme recognises exceptional mass participation projects and events inspired by London 2012 and contributing to its wider legacy.  Example Inspire events taking place over the London 2012 Open Weekend include:

• Hip Hop Shakespeare, London, Southbank Centre:  Public performance of a medley of reinterpreted scenes from Shakespeare plays by undiscovered young artists, MOBO award winning artist Akala and VERY special guests - audience participation guaranteed. 
• Electric Field, Halifax, uses sports and arts to explore our perception of how we move through the world, involving young people, sporting and other community groups as well as using performance, live and taped especially composed music and visual arts installations.
• Fighters and Writers, Omagh, Northern Ireland - Explores the history of Irish Boxing and how the sport has provided men with promises of travel, fortune and fame. Some have made it to the top of the amateur and paid ranks, while others were unlucky and have left us their stories. John McNally, Ireland's first ever Olympic medalist, who took Silver at Helsinki in 1952 will talk about his memories of the glory days of boxing in the 1950s.
• Summer Shorts, Woking - A day of dance from morning through to tea-time as Woking Dance Festival bring performances from professional dance companies and local communities, each one inexplicitly linked with the rhythms of going about our daily business. Saturday shoppers will become unexpected audience members as they find performances unravelling before them in cosy coffee shops, the bustling town square and shopping malls. As the afternoon winds up into early evening Dance Theatre Ireland’s ‘Block Party’ will unfurl as the Summer Shorts grand finale.
• The Lyric Lounge, Leicester: A seven-day festival to enable people to explore and enjoy the power of live literature. The event at the Y Theatre is being held as part of the cultural programme for the Special Olympics, Lounge events are expected to attract hundreds of artists, athletes, local families and literature fans alike.
• A Century of Olympic Posters, The Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead.  The show, on tour from the V&A Museum, explores the representation of the Olympic Games through the intensely visual medium of the poster. Marking the Beijing Olympic Games of 2008 and the build-up to London 2012.
• Streetstyle, Sportstyle 89/09, Leicester University, is an exhibition exploring what people in the East Midlands were wearing in 1989 and what they choose to wear in 2009. The exhibition will include everyday and sports clothes loaned by local people as well as designer and high street clothes preserved by museums around the East Midlands.
• Our Sporting Life, at the World Rugby Museum, Richmond upon Thames - As part of Our Sporting Life, WRM will be inviting members of the public to share their personal, family and community sporting memories. The Museum will also be opening up its archives to explore Rugby’s connections with the Olympics. Did you know that the USA are the reigning Olympic rugby champions? Or that Cornwall competed in the 1908 Olympic rugby final?
• Medley Mix-Up, Southampton - A rare open to all opportuntiy for people to take part in in dressing Southampton’s most famous landmark-The Bargate. Volunteers will attend free workshops led by a professional artist to create a display that will dress the Bargate throughout London 2012 Open Weekend.  The display will be made out of recycled materials from Southampton Scrapstore and will represent a mix of various cultures to celebrate the Cultural Olympiad.
• Journey to Olympus, East Horsely - Inspired by the Olympic Games coming to London, six dances from The Freewheelers Theatre Company, follow the history and celebration of the Games including: Ancient Games, Journey, Victory, Trust, Colours (inspired by the Olympic flag) and Celebration (a dance of joy, achievement and celebration).   Freewheelers consists of people from many culturally diverse backgrounds and is made up of disabled and non-disabled artists.
• Step up Bradford, Bradford, dance all weekend! The programme begins with an open air-tea dance with professional dancers and anyone who wants to have a go. Stepping up the beat, dancing will continue into the evening and on Saturday with a vibrant mix of musical styles and sounds. Performances from circus, aerial, bicycle ballet and a host of other activity will delight and entertain. Internationally renowned Strange Fruit from Melbourne will perform both nights, fusing circus, dance and theatre including seven performers perched on giant illuminated orbs.

The Inspire programme and Open Weekend are examples of how London 2012 is enabling people and communities right across the UK to benefit from the Games, encouraging participation and recognising the contribution people, places and projects are making to the success of the 2012 Games.

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London 2012 Open Weekend event highlights

All events highlighted below can be found at: www.london2012.com/openweekend

• The National Gallery is putting on a special guided tour on the ‘Body in Action’, its paintings - just one of three London 2012 Open Weekend events at the Gallery. The National Portrait Gallery has seven events part of London 2012 Open Weekend, including life drawing classes on athlete’s posture and movement. The NPG is also exploring the history of the London and the dramatic moments and architectural highlights of the London Olympic Games of 1908 and 1948 and then looking forward to the plans for 2012, includes an architectural highlights walking tour around the East End.  

• Work with architects and artists to create your own summer pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery.

Story-telling and design workshops take place at Somerset House using its famous grounds for inspiration.

• Giant dominoes along a 15km route from Newham to Greenwich will be brought to life by actors and performers, helping them tumble and fall and perform.

• The UK debut of the internationally acclaimed Spok Frevo Orchestra will take place at the Barbican Centre – one of six London 2012 Open Weekend events at the Barbican.

• Experience the joy of singing with the East London Chorus, as they open up the choir for an open rehearshal - a chance to watch, hear and join in.

• A singing bus will be touring Belfast with the Open Arts Community Choir (of Last Choir Standing fame), enabling people to hop on board and learn a song. The singing will be led by disabled artists from the Open Arts group.

• The Royal Ulster Hall is putting on a one time open day to enable people to learn how to make music with a wide variety of instruments from around the world.

• Wales, Valley’s Kids cross cultural community play Operation Zulu, is providing local people with the opportunity to get involved in the play.  The play is being created with Langa Township, Cape Town and will be performed in both Wales and Africa in 2012. The Wales Millennium Centre, has a weekend festival of carnival and vaudeville arts.

• The National Portrait Gallery’s Athletes & Olympians exhibition opens at the Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum, its first show outside the Capital. 

• Extraordinary Cycles – Join in and celebrate the marriage of art and sport on the bicycle and bring your bike to a carnival of cycling and a fun ride from Coventry to Leamington and back. 

• Southampton University is holding a Modern Art Pentathlon. The Bucks 2012 Group is compiling an online digital snapshot of the UK of London 2012 Open Weekend events taking place at 20.12hrs!

• Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, is opening up for free for those under the age of 26.  Providing an opportunity to see one of the best collections of modern British art, including Peter Blake, Patrick Caulfield and Lucian Freud as well as the latest exhibitions including the last chance to see Contemporary Eye: Material Matters - a trail of innovative contemporary installations by the likes of Sarah Lucas and Oswaldo Macia.

• In Liverpool a giant video carousel is enabling local people to select the most memorable moments from recent history from the BBC North West archives. The results will be broadcast on the Big Screen in Liverpool over the Weekend.

• Yorkshire’s 2,012 in Bradford is a unique dance event to get over 2,000 people doing a dance at once - Yorkshire’s Athletes hopeful for 2012 will also be involved!  

Other dance opportunities range from a Day of Dance, a celebration of the different types of dance across the world with professional dancers and a chance to get involved in Ormskirk through to Hip Hop classes in London, learning to bop, rock and roll in a 1950s themed day in the Market Square in Stafford, to Foot in the Hand – family dance workshops led by disabled and non-disabled dancers – in Leicester. 

• South Shields Flower Club is holding an Olympic themed flower show to mark London 2012 Open Weekend.

• Community sports days and taster sports sessions and leisure centres opening their swimming pools for free are taking place across the country.  Dodgeball at Celebrate Sports at Stafford College, a chance to get fit with the local Fire Brigade at Croxteth Community Fire Station, a giant Water Fight in Alnwick Gardens, Northumberland, Beach Volleyball in Barking and Nottingham – are some of more unusual opportunities to get sporty! 

Other opportunities include: Skate squad, a new skate park in Great Yarmouth, free swimming at leisure centers across Medway Council, The Wiltshire School of Gymnastics open day and riding in Essex. Sport Caerphilly will be demonstrating Olympic sports and enabling everyone to get involved and learn a new sport. In Northern Ireland, The City of Lisburn Triathlon and Aquathon is part of London 2012 Open Weekend. 

• Enjoy a rare chance to go behind the scenes of museums and galleries.  Examples include, the Potteries and Museum’s Art Gallery, Stoke on Trent, and explore unique, bizarre, and rare objects never normally seen by the public; Nottingham’s City Museums & Galleries will open it’s hidden archives,– including material from Egypt, Greece and the internationally important Nemi  collection from the Temple of Diana, just outside Rome.

• Bogs are Brilliant! Get into the undergrowth with Natural England to learn more about bogs and mosses at Whixall’s nature reserve. 

• TRAIL Recycled Art in Landscape - over 50 sculptures forming a trail along the coast between shaldon and Dawlish in South Devon

• Your City in Lights, Lichfield, celebrates the work of Samuel Johnson, and gives people the chance to meet the artists who will be creating a public art work – involving local people and their personal stories.

• Knickers & Vests in Coventry - a team of misfit sports instructors will be doing an open dress rehearsal of their contribution to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in the Triangle Theatre’ Company’s hilarious take on school sports! Don’t’ forget your PT kit – and no notes from mum!

• Youth Got Talent is a Turner Contemporary led event celebrating the talents of youth people around Margate. 

• See the original Hippogriff figure from the Harry Potter films and learn about Sculpture as Sussex Sculpture Studios opens its outdoor sculpture exhibition.
 

Notes to editors

About BP and its cultural support in the UK

Each year over 1.4 million people attend a BP supported event across the UK enabling them to enjoy the best in arts and culture.  We focus our support on long term partnerships with four world class institutions; The British Museum, The National Portrait Gallery, The Royal Opera House and Tate Britain.

The London 2012 Cultural Olympiad

The Cultural London 2012 Olympiad is a national celebration of culture which is happening now and is about:

• Giving everyone in the country a chance to be part of London 2012.

• Putting culture at the heart of the Olympic Games, in a way and on a scale which has never been done before.

• Using the power of the Olympic Games to inspire creativity across all forms of culture, especially amongst young people.

• Making a real impact which will leave a lasting legacy well beyond 2012.

About the London 2012 Inspire programme 

The Inspire programme is run by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. It is an opportunity for everyone to be a part of the London 2012 Games – a broad participation programme spanning sport participation, education, sustainability, volunteering, and business opportunities & skills. New opportunities are being created to inspire young people and encourage the whole of the UK to join in.

For further information please contact the London 2012 Press Office on +44 (0)203 2012 100 or visit the website at www.london2012.com. Find out the latest from London 2012 HQ on our blog http://blog.london2012.com

As it heads towards its £2bn budget for staging the Olympic and Paralympic Games, LOCOG now has seven domestic Tier One Partners - adidas, BP, British Airways, BT, EDF, Lloyds TSB and Nortel. There are three domestic Tier Two Supporters – Adecco, Cadbury and Deloitte. There are ten domestic Tier Three Suppliers and Providers – Airwave, Atkins, Boston Consulting Group, Crystal CG, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, Holiday Inn, McCann Worldgroup, The Nielsen Company, Populous and Trident.

The Worldwide Olympic Partners signed up for London 2012 are Coca-Cola, Acer, Atos Origin, GE, McDonald’s, Omega, Panasonic, Samsung and Visa.