10:40 PM
Shweta Pandey
The eyes of the world will turn to London in the summer of 2012, for the Olympic and Paralympic games – the greatest shows on Earth. And we want to seize this opportunity, to dazzle and impress with the best of British arts, too. London is the world capital of culture – this is our chance to put on the show of a lifetime. Next summer we will be in the middle of the London 2012 Festival when, from June 21 to September 9, leading artists from this country, and around the world, will take part in a UK-wide summer celebration.
This festival is the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad which was part of our promise to the International Olympic Committee when we won the Games in 2005. The Cultural Olympiad was the idea of Pierre de Coubertin, the inventor of the modern games. He had a vision of a global Olympic movement, combining sport, culture and education. And of course Britain is internationally-renowned for arts and culture.
The bid team knew that by aligning sports with the arts, Britons from all walks of life would gain from London 2012. You may not live in London, sport may or may not be your thing, but this is a way you still get a chance to enjoy the celebrations.
The Cultural Olympiad is a four-year project to encourage people (especially the young) to become involved in arts and culture. It also aims to enable community-led projects to take place that wouldn’t have happened without the spur of the Games. Take, for example, the Lakes Alive spectacular on Windermere, which brought £3m into the local community last year alone. Next year this will be one of the first events to kick off the London 2012 Festival – a free light and fire spectacular.
Another great example is The Itch of the Golden Nit!, an animated film by The Tate Movie Project. More than 9,000 children conceived and drew the animation in 55 locations.
They worked with Aardman Animations, maker of Wallace & Gromit, and used the latest animation technology. Tate asked children to vote online for which celebrities they wanted to play the cameo roles. They voted for the cream of British comedy, including David Walliams, Miranda Hart, Catherine Tate and Rik Mayall. The film has already been seen on the BBC and will be shown on London 2012 Live Sites in Trafalgar Square and in cities across the UK.
Another central part of the Cultural Olympiad has been London 2012 Open Weekend, supported by BP. This year’s event is set to be the biggest and best yet. There have been 2.4 million participants in Open Weekend since 2008, and in 2011 people have the choice of participating in more than 1,200 events taking place across the UK, including a celebration of Jamaican culture in Birmingham, a floating cinema navigating the Olympic Park waterways, and a culture takeover of Aberdeen by the National Theatre of Scotland, Aberdeen Art Gallery and Aberdeen Performing Arts.
The London 2012 Festival starts on June 21 with a Peace One Day concert produced by Jeremy Gilley and Jude Law at an old army barracks in Derry. This could not be more appropriate. It represents the Olympian ideal begun in Greece almost 3,000 years ago, of an international ceasefire for the duration of the Games – a tradition upheld by the United Nations to this day.
I’m really looking forward to some of the activities lined up – the River of Music is a series of concerts along the banks of the Thames, each focusing on music and performing arts from different parts of the world; the World Shakespeare Festival; Hockney at the Royal Academy; Carnival in Luton; and an exhibition of the newly-announced London 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Posters in Tate Britain – the list goes on. With the absence of next year’s Glastonbury Festival because of the Olympics, BBC Radio 1’s Hackney Weekend will take place instead. The project will see up to 80 acts no doubt put smiles on many faces and quickly establish itself as an annual event. Leona Lewis, Mike Leigh, Damon Albarn, Toni Morrison and Plan B have already signed up to be part of the festival. There will be more news in October.
What is exciting is the way artists and art organisations are collaborating. At the Royal Opera House we’re doing a new production of Berlioz’s Olympian work Les Troyens (The Trojans); we've partnered with BP to present the Olympic Museum, a free exhibition telling the story of the Olympic Games; and the Royal Ballet is working with the National Gallery to create Titian 2012 – seven choreographers joining forces with leading contemporary artists to produce three new dance works in response to three great paintings by Titian. Everyone is going the extra mile to present the best of what we do when the eyes of the world are on London in 2012.
One of the elements I have been particularly proud of is Unlimited, the biggest ever commission for deaf and disabled artists, placing them in the mainstream where they belong.
In a time of universal cutbacks we’ve been very appreciative of the support coming from a wide base of sources: National Lottery funding which was earmarked for the Olympics through the Olympic Lottery Distributor and Legacy Trust UK; Arts Council support; the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games; the Greater London Authority; Olympic commercial sponsors and other arts organisations. Many are contributing and much of the funding goes directly into the projects. Two years ago, the budget was planned to be bigger, but we have taken cuts like everyone else.
What I can say is that we are offering value for this money. We are creating seven million opportunities across the country to be part of the London 2012 Festival for free, and I think we’ll have created even more by the time it arrives. We want to make sure that this will be the biggest show in our lifetime. It has to be good, it has to be accessible, it has to be worth it.
When the Olympic flame was lit for London 2012, it didn’t just ignite our sporting hopes. It gave us the very best chance to show that this country is a world-beater in art and cultural pursuits. The Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival could turn out to be one of the great legacies of the London Games – a legacy which will last well after the torch has passed to Rio. Tony Hall is chairman of the Cultural Olympiad and chief executive of the Royal Opera House.
This festival is the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad which was part of our promise to the International Olympic Committee when we won the Games in 2005. The Cultural Olympiad was the idea of Pierre de Coubertin, the inventor of the modern games. He had a vision of a global Olympic movement, combining sport, culture and education. And of course Britain is internationally-renowned for arts and culture.
The bid team knew that by aligning sports with the arts, Britons from all walks of life would gain from London 2012. You may not live in London, sport may or may not be your thing, but this is a way you still get a chance to enjoy the celebrations.
The Cultural Olympiad is a four-year project to encourage people (especially the young) to become involved in arts and culture. It also aims to enable community-led projects to take place that wouldn’t have happened without the spur of the Games. Take, for example, the Lakes Alive spectacular on Windermere, which brought £3m into the local community last year alone. Next year this will be one of the first events to kick off the London 2012 Festival – a free light and fire spectacular.
Another great example is The Itch of the Golden Nit!, an animated film by The Tate Movie Project. More than 9,000 children conceived and drew the animation in 55 locations.
They worked with Aardman Animations, maker of Wallace & Gromit, and used the latest animation technology. Tate asked children to vote online for which celebrities they wanted to play the cameo roles. They voted for the cream of British comedy, including David Walliams, Miranda Hart, Catherine Tate and Rik Mayall. The film has already been seen on the BBC and will be shown on London 2012 Live Sites in Trafalgar Square and in cities across the UK.
Another central part of the Cultural Olympiad has been London 2012 Open Weekend, supported by BP. This year’s event is set to be the biggest and best yet. There have been 2.4 million participants in Open Weekend since 2008, and in 2011 people have the choice of participating in more than 1,200 events taking place across the UK, including a celebration of Jamaican culture in Birmingham, a floating cinema navigating the Olympic Park waterways, and a culture takeover of Aberdeen by the National Theatre of Scotland, Aberdeen Art Gallery and Aberdeen Performing Arts.
The London 2012 Festival starts on June 21 with a Peace One Day concert produced by Jeremy Gilley and Jude Law at an old army barracks in Derry. This could not be more appropriate. It represents the Olympian ideal begun in Greece almost 3,000 years ago, of an international ceasefire for the duration of the Games – a tradition upheld by the United Nations to this day.
I’m really looking forward to some of the activities lined up – the River of Music is a series of concerts along the banks of the Thames, each focusing on music and performing arts from different parts of the world; the World Shakespeare Festival; Hockney at the Royal Academy; Carnival in Luton; and an exhibition of the newly-announced London 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Posters in Tate Britain – the list goes on. With the absence of next year’s Glastonbury Festival because of the Olympics, BBC Radio 1’s Hackney Weekend will take place instead. The project will see up to 80 acts no doubt put smiles on many faces and quickly establish itself as an annual event. Leona Lewis, Mike Leigh, Damon Albarn, Toni Morrison and Plan B have already signed up to be part of the festival. There will be more news in October.
What is exciting is the way artists and art organisations are collaborating. At the Royal Opera House we’re doing a new production of Berlioz’s Olympian work Les Troyens (The Trojans); we've partnered with BP to present the Olympic Museum, a free exhibition telling the story of the Olympic Games; and the Royal Ballet is working with the National Gallery to create Titian 2012 – seven choreographers joining forces with leading contemporary artists to produce three new dance works in response to three great paintings by Titian. Everyone is going the extra mile to present the best of what we do when the eyes of the world are on London in 2012.
One of the elements I have been particularly proud of is Unlimited, the biggest ever commission for deaf and disabled artists, placing them in the mainstream where they belong.
In a time of universal cutbacks we’ve been very appreciative of the support coming from a wide base of sources: National Lottery funding which was earmarked for the Olympics through the Olympic Lottery Distributor and Legacy Trust UK; Arts Council support; the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games; the Greater London Authority; Olympic commercial sponsors and other arts organisations. Many are contributing and much of the funding goes directly into the projects. Two years ago, the budget was planned to be bigger, but we have taken cuts like everyone else.
What I can say is that we are offering value for this money. We are creating seven million opportunities across the country to be part of the London 2012 Festival for free, and I think we’ll have created even more by the time it arrives. We want to make sure that this will be the biggest show in our lifetime. It has to be good, it has to be accessible, it has to be worth it.
When the Olympic flame was lit for London 2012, it didn’t just ignite our sporting hopes. It gave us the very best chance to show that this country is a world-beater in art and cultural pursuits. The Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival could turn out to be one of the great legacies of the London Games – a legacy which will last well after the torch has passed to Rio. Tony Hall is chairman of the Cultural Olympiad and chief executive of the Royal Opera House.
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