Jowell's Cultural Olympiad Ambition

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 has predicted.

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:

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.

www.culture.gov.uk