2010 Cultural Olympiad
The 2010 Olympic Games are bringing together Canada's best athletes… and some of its finest artists. The Canada Council is pleased to be part of the 2010 Cultural Olympiad – an initiative that is creating a cultural legacy that will remain long after the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games have ended.
The Canada Council has been working with many partners, in particular the Vancouver Organizing Committee to support various initiatives in the performing arts, touring, visual arts, media arts, writing and Aboriginal arts. Here is how the Council has lent its support:
The Council contributed $1.5 million over 3 years for creative development of new or refurbished art work to be showcased during the Cultural Olympiads and elsewhere. The partnership also included support from the Province of B.C., the City of Vancouver, 2010 Legacies Now and the Vancouver Foundation which created a $6 million fund. About 48 projects have been supported to date with a final deadline coming in the spring of 2010.
National Presentation and Touring Program
The Council also supported touring linked to the Cultural Olympiads for artists and organizations who applied for funding through the Council’s regular programs. Grants have been awarded for national tour activities in theatre, dance, music and integrated arts.
This partnership between the Council and the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad produced 14 online exhibitions of Canadian visual arts, including works created by winners of the Governor General’s Awards in the Visual and Media Arts. The exhibitions were launched in September 2009 and will end in March 2010.
The Council contributed $100,000 towards this 18-day festival of art installations and live performances of digital media art and digital music in three locations throughout Vancouver.
The Council funded a unique component of this online digital scrapbook which enabled 49 Canadian authors to create next text which was posted one per day for the first 49 days of the project. The project profiled a range of accomplished Canadian authors, several of who encouraged the general public to respond to challenges.
Paralympic School Week Guide
The Canadian Commission for UNESCO is a partner in the Paralympic School Week Guide (PDF). The Commission was invited to be a partner in the context of UNESCO being the only organization in the UN system with a mandate for education, human rights, and the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 2008. There was no financial cost.
More information on Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad initiatives.