Reconnecting culture and sport

15 May 2007

UK's Cultural Olympiad to be 'the best the world has seen' vows Tessa Jowell

"Our model is not Sydney, Barcelona or Athens - it is Olympia"

The UK's Cultural Olympiad, which begins next year, should be the best there's ever been, reconnecting culture and sport as the Ancient Greeks saw it, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell predicted today.

In addition an independent Legacy Trust, jointly funded by the Big Lottery Fund, DCMS and Arts Council England will have £40 million to support cultural and sporting engagement across all nations and regions of the UK, linking local communities with London 2012, throughout the run-up to the opening ceremony of the 2012 Games.

Tessa Jowell believes that this figure will rise dramatically with commercial sponsorship. And she will ensure that around 70 per cent of this total goes to cultural provision, with the rest being invested in grass roots sport.

Speaking in Liverpool, next year's European Capital of Culture, Tessa Jowell said:

"The Olympic flame will light the fuse for an explosion of arts and culture in the UK. Winning the bid for 2012 was about far more than putting on a few weeks of glorious sporting spectacle in London. The
torch that passes to us after Beijing next year will mark the start of a cultural festival to surpass all others, involving people from all backgrounds and from every part of the country. The best the
world has ever seen. Our model is not Sydney or Barcelona or Athens. It is Olympia."

Tessa Jowell continued:

"A Legacy Trust - £40 million to support cultural and sporting engagement across the UK in the run-up to, and during, the 2012 Games will leave a lasting legacy across the whole of the UK. The majority of the money in the fund - around 70 per cent - will be spent on cultural projects. There'll be one major arts project, running for five years, and a handful of large grant programmes each year.

"But this will be no top-down affair. We will make sure the core is strong, but the cultural magic occurs elsewhere - in cultural organisations, and in the imagination and creativity of individual artists. I also want to see how we might give support for Cultural Festivals in the cities of Britain in the 4 years leading up to the 2012 Games, giving the possibility of the cultural sector further realising ambitions to do things that would not otherwise be possible.

Further details of the projects comprising the Olympiad, being organised by LOCOG, will be announced next month.

A new report, also published today, shows incredible public support for cultural festivals. Audience figures for the Arts Council England and Millennium Commission funded Urban Cultural Programme, which took place in 19 areas from 2005, show that nine million attended and 350,000 took part, in each case as 'first timers.'

Tessa Jowell concluded:

"One clear lesson of the last ten years is that cultural festivals are a great way of engaging people's imagination and energy. The competition to find the UK's European Capital of Culture in 2008
showed the scale of ambition that our communities have.

"The Urban Cultural Programme that arose from that competition saw more people taking part than visited West End theatres, and £2.00 levered in for every £1.00 of public investment.`

"Liverpool are pioneers in showing how culture can galvanise communities so it is fitting that the city should be hosting a year-long festival as European Capital of Culture when the Olympiad begins.

"From next year to 2012 the eyes of the world will be on us - I know we will deliver."

See www.culture.gov.uk for further information.