‘Let Space Speak’ | Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony

This Olympic Opening Ceremony offers poignant images of what is ‘not’ there One of the things that struck me the most during Japan’s 2016 Forum of Sport & Culture was a talk by a Japanese living national treasure on the importance of empty space – and nothingness – in Japanese culture. The opening ceremony of Tokyo 2020 has had …

London 2012 Cultural Olympiad Evaluation

Photo: Beatriz Garcia during Piccadilly Circus Circus, part of the London 2012 Festival In November 2011, the major stakeholders in the Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival commissioned Dr Beatriz Garcia and her team at the  Institute of Cultural Capital (ICC) to produce an assessment of the multiple impacts of hosting the Cultural Olympiad. The final …

Olympic Cities of Culture

The CC:RO has documented the evolution of the official Olympic Games cultural programme since it was launched in 1912, and Olympic Movement cultural policy frameworks since their first establishment in 1906. Fieldwork has been conducted in situ at Olympic Games editions since 1992. This work has taken place in collaboration with the Olympic Studies Centre …

The Culture and Education District, London

The Institute of Cultural Capital conducted this scoping study for the Arts and Humanities Research Council in 2017. The study assessed the value of the emerging Culture and Education District (CED, rebranded as East Bank since 2018) in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. This is a case study of a 'creative clustering’ in the making. …

When the Games can’t go on

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games have been postponed. It is only the fourth time this happens in 124 years, the only three previous occasions being due to World War I and World War II. The global virus pandemic of 2020 is forcing a halt on all international sport and cultural mega-events and this …

Paris 2024 Cultural Olympiad

Beatriz Garcia is in Paris responding to a day workshop on the Paris 2024 Cultural Olympiad. She will be talking to key local stakeholders representing la Ville de Paris and the rapidly developing and newly redefined boroughs (établissements public territoriales) surrounding the Olympic Park site in Seine Saint Denis. They are : Plaine Comune, Est …

PyeongChang 2018 Culture Highlights

Two days into the Winter Olympic Games, our director, Beatriz Garcia, shares her Cultural Olympiad hightlights: Dual cultural programming: Cultural Olympiad / Culture 2018 PlusDedicated transport: Cultural Olympiad ShuttleDedicated colours: Hot pink branding for cultureKorean fun: K-Pop FestaArt + Sport links at Games info points Find additional stories on PyeongChang 2018 published via the Culture …

Building bridges between Olympic cities and the Olympic Movement

We have been awarded one of only six Advanced Olympic Research Grants by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), for a research project titled ‘The value of global cultural policy-making: Building bridges between Olympic cities and the Olympic Movement through transnational cultural narratives’. The project will document the testing and implementation of the first IOC Cultural Action Plan …

Tokyo 2020 Cultural Olympiad

Youth, heritage, empowerment and nationwide celebration Article originally published by Beatriz Garcia via Net TAM in 2018 (In English | In Japanese) The Cultural Olympiad has been an essential component of every edition of the Olympic Games since 1912. Despite its long history, the Olympic cultural programme is one of the least well known dimensions of the …

How have the Olympics changed Rio?

Previously published in The Conversation