Designed to give a taste of the talent and creativity to be showcased as part of the ‘Cultural Olympiad’, the weekend kick starts a four-year celebration of the UK’s culture designed to encourage the participation of the widest range of people across the country.
One of the most headline grabbing aspects of the weekend may be the participation of Lord Coe, the former Olympic athlete turned Chairman of the 2012 Olympic committee, who will be turning himself into an artwork at Tate Britain.
The London Gallery will present the special ‘Olympic Hour’ with Coe and other well-known sports people including Jonathan Edwards, replacing the regular team of sprinters in Turner Prize winner Martin Creed’s Work No 850.
An integral and perhaps more meanigful part of the Olympiad is a Museums Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) co-ordinated programme designed to make a vital contribution to the four year celebration.
MLA are keen to stress how their response will involve museums, galleries, libraries and archives right across the country. Over 100 of them are involved in projects ensuring that the journey to 2012 involves cities, towns and villages very much outside of London.
“Through the Cultural Olympiad museums, libraries and archives have a wonderful opportunity to reach new audiences and to widen their appeal to visitors and users from across the world for 2012 and beyond,” said Roy Claire, Chief Executive of the Museums Libraries and Archives Council.
“This presents us with an unrivalled opportunity to present and reinterpret our culture, heritage and history. The Cultural Olympiad will be an exciting and high-quality complement to the excellence of sporting competition.”
Coinciding agreeably with MLA’s recent appointment of Poet Laureate Andrew Motion as Chair, the MLA programme features a strong literary initiative that brings in many of our libraries.
A Literature and Storytelling project will involve poetry writing workshops and a festival of storytelling, inspired by collections, that will give young people an opportunity to learn from established poets and become writers and performers of poetry themselves.
Archives are also strongly featured as part of a new project called The People’s Record, which will be the first permanent archive of the experience of a host City.
Working with museums, libraries and archives and a BBC project called Memoryshare, it will capture the journey to and impact of hosting the games in the words of real people across the country.
“Our museum, library and archive collections are a wonderfully rich reflection of the world’s complex cultural identities,” said Andrew Motion. “It’s absolutely right that they should play this crucial role in allowing people throughout the country to take part in the Cultural Olympiad, and to celebrate the Games.”
The two MLA run projects have been given the London 2012 ‘Inspire mark’, which recognises outstanding projects and events helping deliver the Games' lasting legacy.
The projects will take their part in an ambitious programme spanning the whole spectrum of arts and culture, from the traditional to street culture and beyond.
Focussing on celebrating youth, diversity and creating a lasting legacy, the unprecedented £7m programme is designed to challenge artists to lead a celebration of the excellence, diversity, innovation and internationalism of the arts across the UK.
A full list of Open Weekend events can be found on the London 2012 website.
