Community Focus – Once in a lifetime

If voluntary arts organisations get involved, the Cultural Festival linked to the 2012 London Olympics could have a hugely beneficial impact on communities and artists across the country. Ginny Brink explains why now is the time to act.

Access to the arts can have a lasting and transforming effect on many aspects of peoples lives as well as their neighbourhoods, communities, regions and even entire generations.1

Some of the big questions being exercised by artists and voluntary arts organisations at the moment, centre on the Olympics  whats in it for us, how can we get involved, will there be any money to stage events, is the re-allocation of Lottery funds going to mean arts funding is reduced? When you consider the number of voluntary artists participating in the arts at any time, its easy to see just how important these questions are. Across the country thousands of voluntary arts groups stage plays, operas and concerts, put on exhibitions and festivals, and run classes and workshops every week. A staggering 56% of the population participate in some sort of arts activity  thats more than 24m people! In fact, as many people play musical instruments as play football, a particularly significant statistic given the current Olympic focus on sport.

It may come as a surprise then, given this focus, that the original Games were not exclusively concerned with sport. The role of the arts was much more significant than in todays Games where arts involvement often seems to be relegated to the elaborate opening and closing ceremonies. The modern Olympic Movement was founded in the 1890s by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, to ensure that the Olympic Games would continue to reflect the Greek tradition. His Olympic Charter specifically states that Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.2 In this context, the issue of participation by ordinary people, particularly in meaningful activity that goes beyond mere spectacle, can be seen as central to the Olympic experience. Sadly however, owing largely to the sponsorship of the Games by big corporate firms and the trend towards media sensationalism, the educational and cultural aspirations of the Olympiad are often misrepresented or pass by largely unnoticed by both organisers and the general public.

This needs to be addressed, and urgently. The potential of arts programming to impact on millions  participants and viewers alike  is huge. Beatriz García, researcher and expert on the cultural significance of big events puts it well: Olympic arts programming can increase local participation  because it offers increased ownership of the event, greater inclusion and stronger opportunities for intercultural understanding.3 She looks specifically at Barcelona 1992 to show how the Cultural Olympiad  the tradition of presenting four-year cultural programmes in the approach to the Games  was started. This tradition has not come without budgetary and promotional issues of its own, but it has also increased opportunities for access and direct participation, with activities taking place beyond the Olympic host city and often incorporating existing festivals and other local initiatives.

LOCOG, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, has taken the idea of the Cultural Olympiad on board and is currently looking at how best to support a UK-wide festival. This is an opportunity for collaboration and celebration on a vast scale  to produce nationwide events in the four years leading up to, and then in tandem with, the main programme. Voluntary artists and arts organisations know how much participating in arts activities can facilitate a sense of local cohesion and communication across diverse communities. The voluntary arts could, with good co-ordination, partnerships and innovative planning, be central to creating one of the most meaningful and inspiring cultural programmes ever seen. There are just so many benefits and advantages to be had that we should already be galvanising, gathering, convincing, creating  grabbing this opportunity to create our own Olympic programme with both hands.

We need to start planning, building relationships and sourcing usual and unusual exhibition and performance spaces. We need to think creatively and work out how we can be remarkable or extraordinary to gain attention. And we should be considering who might benefit, in both the short- and long-term, and therefore work with us  tourist offices, hotels, schools and colleges, arts and sporting venues, arts groups, local authority cultural programmers. In doing so we will open up new avenues for ideas and challenges. But we might also find that we are already doing a huge number of things that could be incorporated into the Olympics festival, and our effort could be better concentrated on taking the time to make these more visible and more accessible.

It will be worth it! This is an opportunity that will enable us to showcase the wealth of participatory arts and crafts activity that exists across the UK, to an audience not only from here but across the globe. What other event would give us so much opportunity to enhance our profile, encourage a wider understanding of the benefits of the voluntary arts and increase participation?

In fact its vital that we get involved. Meaningful and enriching activities that include and touch local people in village, town and city communities across the UK will be the things that create memories and connections, and bring a sense of continuity, joy and optimism to the country long, long after the Games have left town.

Ginny Brink is Core Services Co-ordinator at Voluntary Arts Network.
t: 029 2039 5395; e: [email protected];
w: http://www.voluntaryarts.org

Dr Beatriz García will be one of the keynote speakers at the VAN seminar on voluntary arts and the 2012 UK-Wide Cultural Festival. This takes place on 27 April 2007 in London.

w: http://www.voluntaryarts.org/linkevents

1 Department for Culture, Media and Sport http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/arts/access_to_the_arts.htm
2 London 2012 website: http://www.london2012.com/en
3 http://www.culturalolympics.org.uk; In More than a game by Beatriz Garcia