A few months back I had written a blog about having an cultural arts Olympics to engage audiences around the world in cultural arts. Well, it looks like I wasn't the only one that had this idea:
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Cultural Olympiad offers big bang for the buck
Vancouver Sun - British Columbia, Canada
Kevin Griffin, Vancouver Sun
Published:Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Scores of artists, musicians and arts administrators have been invited to Vanoc's main office in east Vancouver today to hear the lineup for the expanded 2009 Cultural Olympiad.
In a sneak preview of what's in store for the second Cultural Olympiad, to be held next Feb. 1 to March 21, Vanoc has organized performances that include projected visuals by Neografik, aerial dance by Aeriosa, and music by Redshift.
With an increased budget of $1.25 million, the 2009 Cultural Olympiad lineup is expected to include more national and international performing arts events than in 2008.
A major concert will also kick off the seven-week cultural festival and mark the one-year countdown to the 2010 Winter and Paralympic Games.
More than 170,000 people attended 300 free and ticketed performances in Metro Vancouver, Britannia Beach and Whistler during the last arts and cultural festival in February and March, and attendance is expected to exceed that this time around.
The local arts and cultural organizations who took part in the first Cultural Olympiad say they benefitted in several ways, including attracting more people because of the event's substantial marketing clout and improving the quality of their performances...
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The only criticism I have is the fact that this is the first time I am hearing about this event. I recently attended the National Performing Arts Convention back in June. Why was this cultural arts olympics not discussed? And, after further research, the cultural olympics were a part of the olympics from the beginning of the olympic games and have been implemented off and on as a precursor to the opening of the olympic games throughout the years.
We see weeks of coverage for the athletes, maybe we need to advocate on an international level to see the coverage for the week of cultural olympics that runs before the games. A cultural olympiad is being planned for 2009 in Canada (see article above) and for 2012 in London.
It's time to show the world the impact that arts have on humanity. It's time to do this at an international level. Maybe a campaign to write to our media to cover these events is needed today and maybe the rest of us who have been left in the dark can come out into the light and participate. Who's with me?
Until next time, may your audiences be happy and loyal ones, and if they are not, feel free to contact me!
~Shoshana~
Shoshana Fanizza is the founder of Audience Development Specialists. Her mission is to introduce organizations to their existing and potential audiences and to help them to form more rewarding relationships.
www.buildmyaudience.com
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