Presentation to the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad / Creative Programmers meeting in Liverpool,

Summary: By 2012, cultural programming at the Olympics will be in its 100th year.  Programming has evolved from medal-awarding Olympic Arts Competitions into Olympic Arts Exhibitions and since 1988 (in the lead to the Barcelona 1992 Games), four year Cultural Olympiads. However such programming has consistently failed to develop a significant profile within the Olympics and has traditionally been one of the most vulnerable aspects of the Games hosting process in terms of budgetting, branding and media coverage. Despite these challenges, some of the most sustainable Games Legacies have been triggered by cultural activity.

This presentation outlines key strengths and weaknesses in the delivery of the Cultural Olympiad in Beijing 2008 and other recent Olympiad editions from Sydney 2000 to highlight the consistent challenge of developing a significant profile for culture within the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The presentation looks at issues such as

programming, branding, promotion and media coverage to trigger discussion about London2012′s and the UK’s existing opportunities to strengthen the case for culture as a major contributor to the Olympic experience through such means as developing an evidence base and encouraging joined up marketing and communication approaches between the culture, sport and tourism sectors.

Biography: Dr Beatriz Garcia has spent the last ten years researching the Cultural Olympiad hosting process and undertaking field research at the Olympic Games in Sydney 2000, Salt Lake 2002, Athens 2004, Torino 2006 and

Beijing 2008. She has been funded by the International Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Academy to study the definition and implementation of cultural policies within the Olympic Movement. She is also a member of the IOC Postgraduate Grant Selection Committee and provides advice on cultural matters within the IOC Olympic Studies Centre. Beatriz acted as academic advisor to the London 2012 Culture and Education Advisory Committee throughout the Games bidding process. Since 2006, Beatriz has been the Director of Impacts 08 – The Liverpool Model, a longitudinal research programme into the impact of Liverpool’s becoming European Capital of Culture, jointly undertaken by the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University. In this role, Beatriz is arguing for the establishment of a comparable research framework that ensures an appropriate evidence-base for the Cultural Olympiad.

[For more information: www.beatrizgarcia.net, www.impacts08.net;

Upcoming publication: Garcia, B. (2009) The Olympic Games and Cultural Policy, Routledge.

In: 9th International Symposium on Olympic Research, International Centre for Olympic Studies, University of Western Ontario & Beijing Capital Universiy

Chair: Andy Miah
Panel: Ana Adi, Beatriz Garcia, Kris Krug, Garry Whannel, Tina Zhihui.

Research into the role of the media within the Olympic Movement has focused predominantly on representational questions. Far less research has investigated the journalistic culture of an Olympic Games or the Movement more generally, besides analyses of its contribution to sustaining the Olympic Movement. Moreover, nearly no research has examined the work of those journalists who are peripheral to the organizational staging of the Games. This category includes journalists who are associated with accredited media institutions, but whom might not have formal accreditation due to restrictions on numbers of passes. It also includes journalists who are from major media organizations, but whom have no intention of working from Olympic facilities. However, it also includes non-accredited journalists, which encompasses professional journalists from a range of organizations, along with freelance or citizen journalists, whose work is utilized by the mass media and is duplicated in independent domains.

This panel engages some of these issues in the form of a round table debate about the future of journalism at the Olympic Games. It reviews some of the implications of emerging new media platforms, arguing that the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games can be characterized as the first Web 2.0 Summer Games. While some principles of Web 2.0 have been visible since the Internet’s inception, critical aspects of its current architecture began to flourish around 2005. Applications from this era, such as YouTube, MySpace and Facebook, more adequately enable users to report the Olympics as citizen journalists. The implications of this within China and for the Olympics more broadly are considerable. As mass media organizations begin to strike partnerships with new media institutions – for instance, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) purchased a YouTube channel in March 2007 – questions remain over how the Olympic Movement will protect its intellectual property, as the base broadens over ownership claims and via distributed publishing syndication.

The Olympic Games is recognized worldwide as the largest sports mega-event – certainly the event attracting the largest amount of media coverage globally. As well as a sports event, the Olympics are a cultural phenomenon, with a history spanning more than 100 years and supported by a global network of organisations with an educational and intercultural remit that defines itself as a Movement and aspires to promote Olympism as a “philosophy of life” (IOC, 2007: p. 11), headed by the International Olympic Committee. What is less known, is that the Games also incorporate 100 years of Olympic cultural and arts programming and that such experience is playing a growing role defining or contributing to respective host cities’ cultural policies. This paper offers an overview of the cultural dimension of the Olympic Games and the development of Games-specific cultural programming. After an introductory section providing a discussion and framework to the notion of cultural policy-making within the Olympic Games, the paper presents a historical account of ‘official’ Olympic cultural programming in the summer editions of the Games, from the initial conception by Pierre de Coubertin in 1906 up to the last implementations on occasion of the Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 Games. The paper ends with a brief revision of the current challenges and prospects that the programme, now denominated Cultural Olympiad and spanning over four-years, holds within the Olympic Movement and future host cities such as London in the lead to 2012.

Keywords: Olympic Games, cultural policy, Cultural Olympiad, Olympic cultural programme

The final report and summary reports are kept at the Arts Council England North West. [View Summary Report]

Research aims

The project involved an evaluation of Cultureshock, the Commonwealth Games North West Cultural Programme and the assessment of the eleven individual projects making up the cultural strand of the Spirit of Friendship Festival (SoF). This work was separated in two main strands:

Strand 1: Study of Cultureshock and SoF structures of management and design rationale:

Assessment of the suitability of the programmes’ working agendas (mission statements, programme design and contents) and an assessment of the effectiveness of the structures established to manage and implement them (team work, funding abilities, relationships).

Project objectives:

1. To assess the suitability of the programmes’ design format (ie. ‘strengths and weaknesses of the programme itself’ – mission statements and main contents)

2. To assess the effectiveness of the programmes’ management and promotional structures (ie. ‘strengths and weaknesses of Cultureshock/SoF as a delivery mechanisms for an arts programme’)

3. To assess the effectiveness of the programme’s community relations structure in relation to social inclusion (ie. ‘ Cultureshock/SoF’s ability to work with the arts as a tool for social inclusion’)

Strand 2: Study of Cultureshock and SoF immediate impacts and potential legacies:

This involved a measurement of how the programmes have affected their environment: from individual audiences to existing partners, the arts community and respective host locations in a broader sense. Here, it is of particular interest to consider the context in which Cultureshock and the Spirit of Friendship festival are located, that is, the celebration of a major international sporting event.

Project objectives:

4. To determine the impact of presenting a major arts programme alongside an international sporting event

- on event audiences: impacts on experience, perceptions, values

- on key investors and local hosts: economic impacts

- on arts groups and institutions: impacts on art form development

5. To determine whether Cultureshock has changed people’s perceptions of the Commonwealth

6. To determine the value and sustainability of the programmes’ International Partnerships

7. To identify other potential legacies in the short, medium and/or long term

Outcomes

The main purpose of the project was to inform partners about:

- appropriate mechanisms for future investment in International Arts and Cultural Programming

- benefits/pitfalls of hosting a cultural programme across a region/city

- the value of investment into research and development

- future templates/models for the other major arts and sports events in this region or elsewhere in the UK

The main outcomes of the research emerged around these dimensions. They also respond to a combination of the main research objectives indicated in section 2: ‘Purpose of study and operational objectives’. In particular,

1. this project allowed identification of ‘appropriate mechanisms for future investment in International Arts and Cultural Programming’ by assessing the effectiveness of the programme’s management and promotion structures, the strengths and weaknesses of the programme as a delivery mechanisms for the arts.

2. the benefits/pitfalls of hosting a cultural programme across a region/city emerged from the study of the opportunities and constraints presented to the programme and the measurement of resulting impacts on audiences, investors, the arts community and the host city and region in general. Relevant information also emerged from studying the ability of the programme to utilise the arts as a tool for social inclusion.

3. evidence of the value of investment in research and development was provided throughout the process to undertake this project. The final report specifies the key benefits and challenges of the study and suggests alternative ways of undertaking research to gather information about aspects that have not been explored in this study

4. finally, information and suggestions about future templates/models for the other major arts and sports events in this region or elsewhere in the UK were provided by a combination of all findings associated with the programme rationale, management and promotion structures and potential legacies

Glasgow’s year as European City of Culture in 1990 is perceived as an event marking a renaissance in perceptions of the city. This paper examines how the contemporary press coverage can be used as a resource to trace the narratives and mythologies surrounding the event. To facilitate this research, a pre-existing archive of press cuttings, totalling over 5,000 clippings, was employed. This paper describes how the interests of the project, and the nature of the large press archive being examined, lead to the utilisation of a distinct methodology of media analysis. The paper describes the attempt to unite both quantitative, statistical analysis with qualitative, pre-informed examination. By tracing aspects of the practical examination of the Glasgow 1990 press coverage, the paper explores the successes and failures of the approach taken and assesses its potential for development and employment in other contexts.

Key words: City Marketing; Urban Regeneration; Media Analysis; SPSS; Cultural Policy

In January 2007, I was invited by MidWest to contribute to a series of discussions on the role of artists in policy-making under the common title ‘Know Your Place’. My involvement started with a conversation with a group of artists from the West Midlands. In this meeting, it became clear that some of the main issues concerning the artists involved in this consultation were their feeling of being excluded from the policy-making process, lacking confidence to overcome existing barriers, the perception that decision-makers did not pay sufficient attention to artist-led initiatives and, particularly, the feeling that there was not a shared language through which to resolve the existing tensions between arts and policy needs.

In this paper, I offer an overview of the key issues presented in response to these realisations. These are organised around three main topics:

What is cultural policy?
Can artists influence cultural policy?
Can the language of research and evaluation offer a bridge between arts and policy needs?

In Liverpool, as well as other cities aspiring to or already nominated to the title, the emphasis is on economic regeneration but linked to the expectation that, with it, will come wider social and cultural regeneration. On this basis, this paper revisits what was achieved by Glasgow’s approach to community engagement in 1990 and assesses whether the experience of involving local creative groups has led to any sustainable legacy within the city’s creative economy.

The paper’s main claim is that localities must work towards diverse and inclusive social environments to secure high levels of local creativity and thus maximise distinctiveness, competitiveness and long-term sustainability for cultural initiatives.

in: Mapping the City Seminar, Impacts 08, CAVA, City in Film and Institute for Popular Music, Liverpool (7 Nov)

In the context of culture-led regeneration initiatives, the representation of a city becomes a strongly contested issue. Local authorities compete with event organisers and key regeneration and cultural stakeholders as well as the local community to determine a narrative for the city. Opinion-leaders are pressed to provide a coherent and ‘sellable’ story of the city at the same time as gaining consensus to ensure it is meaningful and owned by the wider community. Further, criticisms against city marketing and branding exercises as over simplistic and elite-oriented, emerge in parallel to demands for a raise in local expectations and pride, and the belief that using culture as a catalyst for regeneration can help bridge the gap between external image and local identity needs. This paper considers approaches to understanding conflicting city representations from a methodological point of view. The paper places an emphasis on mapping exercises as a technique that can help capture key cultural relationships and their positioning in the city at a geographical as well as an ideographical or symbolic level. Such exercise can help portray relevant (and contradictory) narratives of the city as well as visualise the sources for such narratives. The focus of this exercise is Liverpool in the wake of its title as European Capital of Culture in 2008. The exploration of a symbolic cultural map of Liverpool is embedded within a wider research programme on the impact of hosting the 2008 title, which combines academic interrogation with the ambition to inform and influence the city’s cultural policy framework. The paper concludes with a brief reflection about the role of academics as contributors to the city’s narrative and, more specifically, their position within the symbolic map of present day Liverpool.

Impacts 08 – The Liverpool Model, is a joint research initiative of the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University, which evaluates the impact of Liverpool’s hosting the European Capital of Culture title in 2008. The research, commissioned by Liverpool City Council, is the first of its kind to assess simultaneously the full range of major-event impact, that is, its economic, environmental, social as well as cultural aspects. The main aim of Impacts 08 is to develop a research model for evaluating the multiple impacts of culture-led regeneration that can be applied to events across the UK, such as the London 2012 Olympics, and beyond.

The scope of the research programme is unprecedented and offers an innovative approach to impact measurement. This is achieved by combining the assessment of quantitative indicators, such as job creation, inward investment and tourism growth, with a qualitative investigation of the lived experiences of the people of Liverpool and the evolution of perceptions throughout the UK and internationally. The programme also takes a longitudinal approach exploring change in outcomes, experiences, perceptions and understanding over time – from the pre-bid period (2000), through the bidding and nomination (2002-3), preparations towards the event (2004-7), the main event-year (2008), and beyond. Throughout the programme, the research team is working closely with Liverpool 08’s stakeholders (including Liverpool City Council, Liverpool Culture Company and Culture Northwest) to report back areas of success and suggestions for improvement. Key findings are being reported on the Impacts 08 website (www.impacts08.net).

in: Cultural and Creative Impact of the 2012 Games, Creative Clusters, Session hosted by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, London (9 Nov 2007) [presentation]

The modern Olympic Games were founded at the end of the 19th century as a vehicle to inspire youth and promote internationalism. Since then, they have evolved into a global media phenomenon and a platform to establish or project a world class city. In this journey, the role of universally recognised symbolic components such as the Olympic rings, torch relay and, crucially, the mass appeal of opening and closing ceremonies has been increasingly pivotal to the ‘Olympic experience’.

Other equally relevant components of the Olympic hosting process include urban planning and graphic design – from new Olympic venue infrastructures to ubiquitous signage and branding, the so-called ‘Look of the Games’; and street animation to manage the crowds as well as create a festive atmosphere – the now termed ‘LiveSites’. These elements are evidence of the role of cultural and creative entrepreneurs in shaping the Olympic experience. Crucially, it is often these dimensions that create the most sustainable and meaningful legacies for local communities and Olympic visitors alike.

The paper explores the current definitions and regulations for presenting an official Olympic cultural programme and contrasts their narrow focus with the wide range of areas that have been explored and established creative legacies in previous Olympic cities, from Barcelona 1992 to Vancouver 2010.