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Bill Morris
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The official proposal
Bill Morris, ceremonies, culture and education director for London 2012 (speaking from Rio, where he was attending the Pan American Games)
‘It’s too soon to talk specifically about what the 2012 Cultural Olympiad will feature, but being at the Pan American Games is encouraging. I hope to draw on some of the feeling here, where the events are intended to inspire people across the world – such as the drama projects in the favelas which have linked up with the Royal Shakespeare Company for some of the work.
‘We’re looking at an idea by Nicholas Kent, managing director of the Barbican, for example, who wants to create an Olympic Proms, which will bring together musicians who are on the brink of their career and have them perform across all genres of music from classical to rock.
We’ll be using every kind of new technology, through which people can be participants even if they are not athletes. For example, it might be that they can upload their own videos of the Games to a central website.
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‘My immediate concern is the handover ceremony in Beijing in 2008. We have eight minutes of the closing ceremony in both the Olympics and Paralympics and it’s a wonderful opportunity to celebrate London and give an idea of how we are going to represent the values of London 2012. Further down the line, for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Games, we’ll need to be eloquent about what matters to London, and how London can be represented to the rest of the world.’
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Claire Fox
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The alternative views
Claire Fox, director, Institute of Ideas
‘Why are the key mantras of the Cultural Olympiad “engagement and participation”? These buzz-words may sound harmless, but beware. It is clear that no barriers to participation – such as having no artistic talent at all – will be allowed to get in the way of everyone joining in. The public is asked to prove it is engaging in the arts, by being dragooned into frenetic activity – all-singing, all-dancing marionettes. We are told that engagement “should be more than just being an audience member”. Quietly contemplating a piece of music or silently watching a play is derided as passive. This seems less about enabling people to appreciate the arts per se and more about trumpeting participation as an end in itself.
‘Proposal: Dump the endless “community music making” and song/playwriting initiatives and let everyone become an audience member. Why not use subsidies to make the Royal Opera House, the National Theatre, the ENO, the Yorkshire Playhouse, the Sage Gateshead, Clwyd Theatr Cymru etc, free for a month every year until 2012?
‘Why does every Cultural Olympiad proposal have a youth angle? Youth is no assurance of artistic excellence or innovation; the danger is the most talented will be sidelined by teenagers. At the launch of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Partnership’s Setting the Pace, Keith Khan, head of Culture London 2012, turned to a group of school pupils “displayed” in the front row and told them “I’ve got to learn from you”. Yuk! This patronising sycophancy is not isolated. One of the ten official projects is a World Festival of Youth Culture. For goodness sake, youth culture hardly needs a sponsor – it is spontaneous, ephemeral and often shallow. Our cultural leaders should stop hanging on the coat tails of youth, and instead commission great art to inspire the young to put aside childish things.
‘Proposal: Dump the official “young people’s filmmaking competition”. Instead, commission the greatest filmmakers of the time, whatever their age, to produce masterpieces that might introduce the young to sublime worlds as yet undreamed of, far beyond anything they’ll find on MySpace.
‘Why can’t we think big; I mean really big? China’s Cultural Olympiad will result in 100 new museums being opened by 2008 (and 1,000 by 2015). Why is the UK’s ‘big leap forward’ confined to re-interpreting existing collections? Why do collections need reinterpreting? Coming to terms with our colonial past and multicultural present is the stock answer. Why are curators instructed to “work with communities” to deliver this reinterpretation? Do the culturati really believe that Yorkshire’s contemporary Chinese community will be more enlightening about Ming artefacts than a scholar of that dynasty? No, but they do seem to believe that the only way ethnic groups will engage with collections is if they are from “their” indigenous culture. So much for the universal museum. And nothing like a bit of community endorsement to assuage post-imperial guilt.
‘Proposal: Dump the re-interpretation plan. UK museums have tens of thousands of artefacts in storage. Let’s get these treasures on display for the first time. No room in today’s museums? Let’s take inspiration from Beijing and build some more. A new British Museum would not go amiss. Who will interpret them? Let’s fund scholarships to train hundreds of new curators. This new generation of experts can then help local communities – and the whole world – understand the history of humanity that is hidden in basements just waiting for an excuse (like the Olympics) to see the light of day.’
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Neil McGregor
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Neil MacGregor, director, British Museum
‘The British Museum was designed to allow the whole world to be seen in one place. It was one of the first results of a globalised world, founded in 1753 when London was already a city of immense diversity, during the first age of the global economy. London is still a city of infinite variety, the links Londoners maintain with their countries of origin putting the capital at the centre of a worldwide conversation. This situation provides the great world collections of London and the UK with a unique opportunity, a lens, to celebrate, explore and understand cultures from every corner of the world. The Games of 2012 can be a time to ask what the new histories of the world are that the world needs now. Can our museums and galleries enable these different histories to be told? Told not just by the scholars and historians, but by the diasporas in this country, and by people from across the world who can access the collections physically and virtually. If we can make the Cultural Olympiad a moment when the citizens of London, the UK and the world can use the rich collections in our museums and art galleries to re-think their own positions in the complex network of world cultures then I think we will have achieved something remarkable. This should be our aim.
‘The focus of the Cultural Olympiad should not be just about attracting visitors to London, though this is of course one of its aims. Rather it is an opportunity for the UK to converse with the whole world: the virtual offer will be as important as the physical one. It should be a moment when the largest possible audience can make use of the collections in the UK to understand the cultural achievements of the world. With this in mind the British Museum’s work internationally, in Africa and China for instance, will be the driving force of much of our Olympic offer, standing alongside major exhibitions and events planned in Bloomsbury to let people understand their place in the world today.’
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Graham Sheffield
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Graham Sheffield, artistic director, Barbican
‘I feel ambivalent about the Cultural Olympiad. On the one hand I’m pleased it has been so high in the public debate about the Games. But wary because of the way funding has been managed.
‘I get the sense that the structure that’s been set up is creditable – you need that for it to work. But there is a danger that it could all become worthy and prosaic. Wherever possible, the artists need to be given their head. One part of the bid project was ‘Artists Taking the Lead’, and I think this is encouraging. The arts are not tidy. I’m wary of structuring the Cultural Olympiad too much.
‘The arts is one of the strongest things about this country. We’re probably better known for our cultural prowess than our sporting prowess (with a few notable exceptions, of course). We have a reputation for championing innovative and diverse arts, so let’s do that in 2012. It seems that it’s all quite serious at the moment. I’m not against taking things seriously, but the word Games does imply play, and we shouldn’t ignore the elements of fun that people want.
‘One of the things I’ve become aware of in the past year, and the Olympics has played a key part in this, is that the arts have moved up the political agenda. I think this is one of the great unwritten benefits of the Games, and it’s an opportunity for the cultural sector to benefit.
‘Most people in the cultural sector are up for this and want to do it, if given the wherewithal. In the past we had mixed messages on funding – lots of encouragement, but no promises. The problem is that as the cost of the sport and infrastructure of the Olympics rises, it’s going to be less easy for the Cultural Olympiad. We know there won’t be oodles of money, but if our core funding is being cut it’s going to be difficult.
‘The last thing I’d say is that there has already been a lot of work done between institutions in the different cultural quarters of London – for instance, the South Bank. In our own quarter, the City and east London, there’s a strong internal dynamic, and a desire to work together and collaborate on projects for 2012. I’m optimistic about the opportunity.’
1 comment
We should be delighted that the Cultural Olympiad is taking such good shape, and that the premises of the idea are so broadly based and democratically conceived. The amount of preparatory work involved should not be underestimated, so we should lend as much enthusiastic support as we can to the project. Like many other professional performers in the union Equity we have been keen since we passed a resolution in 2006 to have a really nation-wide all-comers, joyful celebration of Shakespeare. It is the case, perhaps a little sadly, that however glorious the Games may be in one particular city, they are always replaced in the public consciousness four years later by a new venue. That is the nature of things. However, the first ever, truly national celebration of William Shakespeare's amazing talents, with everyone in the country who wishes to taking part, will be remembered by all for the rest of the century. This, obviously, is because no other country can lay claim to such a versatility and endurance of talent. Beijing did well with their opening and closing ceremonies. If the whole of the United Kingdom gets involved in a really glorious and enjoyable Shakespeare celebration, this will be unmatched and unmatchable by anyone else. Like other professionals in Equity I'd be very happy to offer, on a voluntary basis, any services or skills that might help others - including schools, community centres, minority religious or cultural groups, and those in out-of-the-way places who must not be excluded. Let us together do all we can to support the thrill of the Games and the memorability of the first ever national Shakespeare celbration.