Cultural Olympiad 'will be a fiasco as big as Dome', says Tory spokesman
Shadow culture minister expresses his fears for the future of £80m project
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An arts extravaganza to showcase the finest British creative talent in the run-up to the 2012 London Olympics could become as much of a fiasco as the Millennium Dome, Ed Vaizey, the shadow culture minister, has warned.
Speaking to The Independent, Mr Vaizey said that while he was a "big fan of the Cultural Olympiad", he had reservations about the £80m project. He particularly questioned whether it was suitable for Tony Hall, the director of the Royal Opera House, to run the Olympiad part-time.
"I would want to ensure that it would not become the next Millennium Dome, there's always that fear. It's important that the opening and closing ceremonies have a clear vision. What I fear is that it becomes a dome, an event-by-committee," he said.
Mr Vaizey is concerned that Tony Hall, the chief executive of the Royal Opera House, who was appointed as chairman of the Olympiad in July, won't be able to give the role his full attention. "We need a full-time person doing this job," Mr Vaizey said.
However, a spokesman for London 2012 said the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (Locog) was in the process of finding a director to work alongside Tony Hall.
"We are currently recruiting the director of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad who will work closely with Tony Hall and the Cultural Olympiad board," said the spokesman. "This is a full-time role for Locog within the culture, ceremonies and education department which is directed by Bill Morris."
The spokesman dismissed suggestions that the Olympiad may suffer the same ignominious fate as the Dome (now the O2 arena), in south-east London, which caused political controversy when it failed to attract the anticipated number of visitors and was burdened by financial problems.
Commissioned by Tony Blair's Labour government, it was deemed to one of the party's biggest disasters. But the spokesman said there was no danger of the Olympiad becoming the Dome, and that funding was already in place for all the Olympiad's major projects, including £16m from the Olympic Lottery Distributor.
"We are making great progress with all the 10 major London 2012 Cultural Olympiad projects – a number of which have been launched this year, and the rest will follow at the start of next year," the spokesman said.
Mr Vaizey also criticised aspects of the Arts Council (ACE). "There are certain changes I would like to see it making. I would like to have annual email exchanges of letters to the chairman and chief executive of the Arts Council," he said.
He felt that ACE was "missing an opportunity" by not joining up arts institutions so they could work together on fundraising strategies. "ACE can do more for arts development. It should be seen as a resource for the entire arts community ... I don't think there's enough best practice shared among institutions.
"The Arts Council does not do enough to bring similar organisations [together]. It needs to teach people how to fundraise. If should do a survey of which of the organisations raised the most this year and talk to them about how they did it," he said.
As an example of how arts groups could be more efficient if they worked together, Mr Vaizey suggested that temporary walls created for exhibitions should not be destroyed when the event is over, but passed on to another group or gallery to use.
An ACE spokesperson said: "We agree with Ed Vaizey that partnerships are crucial to success in the arts and Arts Council England already works hard to encourage partnership working and sharing of best practice in the arts sector."
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Comments
Many States have decided to be generous towards the Arts (therefore increasing the amount of anger at money being spent on 'not art'), some have been less so and have stifled cultural growth and access. Some have used 'The Arts' as political propaganda.
Art (leaving aside the 'definition' of art and the wild excesses of the pseuds) does not entertain. It uplifts the human spirit. Uplifting the human spirit is not a pay-per-view commodity, as there is point of view which says that we all should share in such altruism.
I disagree with the example of Sky as TV is not in itself art, although don't decry the Arts channel on Sky its not all bad.
The arts grant inequities are often highlighted/ridiculed in the excellent Yes Minister series of some time ago, nothing has changed indeed the disparity is wider than ever between the have's & the have not?s, which I'm certain should please Sir Humphrey & his replacement.
With regard to 'subsidising' I would agree with others on the cheap tickets for the ?chosen few? policy. However if the arts grant was used to 'top up' the pittance spent on art in schools throughout the UK I'd argue for more money to be spent in this area as it often connects to much of the curriculum, ie language/poetry, history, music etc in an exciting & perceptive manner.
Part of the problem within education is so little time & money is spent in the areas that uplifts the spirit/soul while bringing about an appreciation of the many forms & the stimulation of communication.
Galleries & workshops should be among the first for the school outing but the limited budgets make this unlikely, perhaps the galleries/dance/workshops could be brought into the school with the arts grant used to benefit all, again the vast majority of the grant never manages to cross the M25 to the other 94% of the UK population or is it philistine?
Quite honestly the arts grant would be better spent to fund school trips to the local pantomime as the excitement of the kids would include the experience of visiting the theatre, whilst watching dance, song, rhyme, colour in what is a joint & thrilling experience for the young, whilst exposing them to their very first & exciting experience of the arts albeit with none of the snobbery attached.
He's talking rubbish: Oh no he's not, Oh yes he is, well six of one & half a doz etc
Some things are absolutely vital for making life rewarding yet can never exist if the policies of "only pay for what you use" and "everything must pay for itself" are the criteria.
"We are making great progress with all the 10 major LONDON 2012 Cultural Olympiad projects"
London gets Ł12 billion & counting for the 2012 Olympics & now Ł80 million for the Cultural Olympiad projects?
I seem to remember the whole of the UK were to benefit from the 2012 jamboree, Mmmmmmmmm
94% of the population live outside the area known as "London" & get sweet bugger all out of everything they even stole the Lottery which should be redesignated London's National Lottery.
Should the 2018 football world cup bid be sucessful I have little doubt the so called National Lottery will once again be purloined for a further six years with all the money 'invested' in the Lottery never finding its way into the community projects UK/nationwide it was designed for.
The National Lottery had a number of parliamentary detractors over the many years it was considered, one of the main worries was the likelihood its funds would be redirected into areas where normally taxation had been the tool of investement. Supposed firm guarantees were put in place to safeguard this occuring before the bill was past through parliament. Then Labour took office & like every/all other promsies/guarantees they were conveniently ignored or just rode over in the usual roughshod manner of a government who rules in an executive manner, but then again their two most powerful decision makers ie MacBrown & Mandelson have never been given the personal mandate/mantle they have assumed.
So don't run away with the idea that Labour started slyly using the Lottery as a way of cutting back Government funding.
The problem is Labour have made a habit of redirecting extremely large (Ł billions) into areas where taxation had usually funded, perhaps they misread the scheme as The National Lootery, doing so in the very grandest of manner's.
By the way leave John Major alone here's a man who did little harm, in fact thinking about it he did bugger all.
Like the 'don't run away' bit.
His worst sin in my mind was to pretend to be The Honest Man; not only was he knocking off Currie, he unceremoniously ditched her when Thatcher offered him No 10. A cad, and a character which was the opposite of the Spitting Image.
But the thing which I will willingly cheer him for is dropping Thatcher's destructive attitude in Northern Ireland and getting the mess sorted out.
From the word go, I suspected the Lootery was a poor attempt to get public taxes up without calling it taxes. (I remember the phrase 'stealth tax' was first used in Major's time btw).
Just like using pension contributions to prop up current spending instead of investment for future pensions, all Governments have happily inherited these underhand practices. All conmen.
You mention the ERM, this debacle galvanized my opinion of J.M. as he announced he'd just bought their new album, but was keeping his religion.
Whilst your unfortunate indiscretion in the mention of his early dalliance? Surely it's obvious J.M. completely & in his case understandably misunderstood his colleagues when they had a show off hands on going down for a curry.
J.M. has no worries about his gold plated pension, although its likely he has little time to visit his local Post Office to collect as he'll probably have a dozen or so quango's to fit in that is if other retired politicians are any guideline.
As the Red Squirrel sat on the fence said, what a grey day.