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By: Raymond T. Grant
It is right and proper that cultural programs are a
required part of the Olympic Games. History has, to a certain
extent, driven the integration of cultural programs into the
Olympic Games. And, just as we highlight, in both the Olympic
and Paralympic Winter Games, the accomplishments of athletes,
so too is it noble and right that we celebrate the
achievements of artists in Cultural Olympiads.
Thanks to the tireless efforts of archaeologists and
anthropologists, we have come to appreciate the significance
of the Ancient Games and their role in merging sport and
culture. Surely this had influenced, in the late 19th century,
Baron Pierre de Coubertin in his interest in the integration
of art, principally through competitions, as an element in the
re-establishment of the modern Olympic Games. Today, Conrado
Durantez, President of the International Pierre de Coubertin
Committee, keeps interest in de Coubertin and his Olympic
legacy thriving.
David Gilman Romano, Ph.D., the gifted classical
archaeologist from the University of Pennsylvania, in an essay
I had the privilege of commissioning, said "cultural programs
as required elements of the modern Olympic Games are totally
in keeping with the origins and history of the ancient
festival where sculpture, poetry, music, and political
idealism were bound together with athletic competition and
religious celebration." Romano reminds us that the Delphi
festival originated as a musical tribute to Apollo Pythios.
Contests in singing to the flute appeared in the sixth century
B.C. and it was only later that athletic contests were added.
I find it both compelling and fitting that the very earliest
text in the entire Greek world is scratched into the shoulder
of a terracotta vase found buried in an Athenian grave. It is
a hexameter poem that describes the winner of a dancing
contest from c.a. 740 B.C. It reads "he who dances most nimbly
of all take this (the vase) as your prize." For me, this
suggests not only a substantive chronicling of the Olympics,
but the influential role artists have had over the centuries
on the Olympic Movement. The Olympic motto "Citius - Altius -
Fortius invites artists to excel.
In his work The Forgotten Olympic Art Competitions,
Richard Stanton details the program for a conference in Paris
in April of 1906 called by de Coubertin where choreography,
letters, music, painting, sculpture, and other disciplines
were detailed and discussed. The inclusion of arts and letters
in the modern Olympics was underway.
Today, the Olympic Charter binds organizing committees
to "promote harmonious relations, mutual understanding and
friendship among the participants and others attending the
Olympic Games" through the establishment of a cultural
program. With proper latitude for local customs and traditions
combined with the oversight of the IOC Commission on Culture
and Olympic Education, today's organizing committees can,
through a well curated Olympic Arts Festival, impact the Games
and leave a cultural legacy for them.
These few examples of ancient and contemporary history
have helped define the role of the 2002 Cultural Olympiad, the
Olympic Arts Festival surrounding the Olympic Winter Games and
Paralympic Games of 2002. Essays on the ancient Games, the
role of artists who live with disabilities, the connection of
human rights within the context of the Olympic ideals have all
helped provide a perspective and point of view to my selection
of programming for the XIX Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake
City. So too has a commissioned poem by the 39th poet laureate
of the United States, Robert Pinsky. In this poem, Pinsky
calls on the ancient Greek poet Pindar.
The ancient Olympic practice of chariot racing and the
forgotten Olympic Art Competitions of the 20th Century have
suggested to me the legitimate placement of ice sculpting and
the cultural experience of rodeo as a part of the 2002
festival with concomitant cultural participation
medals.
With all of this, however, the raison d'être of the
2002 Cultural Olympiad is the commissioning of new work by
contemporary artists. Singularly, this will define a cultural
legacy for these Games. My programming includes a new modern
dance work choreographed by Judith Jaimison for the Alvin
Ailey Dance Theatre, world cultural ambassador of black
heritage. With music by America's jazz great Wynton Marsalis,
the inspiration behind this new work is the life of the gifted
Olympian Florence Griffith Joyner. It seems to me a fine way
to merge sport plus art. Another example will be the
commissioned work of the Pilobolus Dance Theatre that will
combine humor with athleticism.
In his work One Hundred Years of Olympic Congresses
1894-1994, Norbert Muller reports that the aforementioned 1906
Paris Conference recommended, in point of fact, demanded, that
dance be returned to a "more athletic way of expression." I
suggest that these Ailey and Pilobolus works will fulfill the
1906 mandate.
The monumental glass sculptures of Dale Chihuly resist
categorization. Yet, if sculpture were an Olympic sport today,
Chihuly would be an Olympian.
Similar examples in theatre, poetry, music, and the
visual arts abound in this 2002 Cultural Olympiad.
It is fitting, as well, that the Olympic Arts Festival
was called upon to produce the Opening Ceremony of the 113th
IOC Session. This program of protocol, pageantry, and culture
will reflect the vision of the 2002 Olympic Arts Festival - to
highlight the achievements of athletes alongside the
accomplishments of artists. This is what we aspire to. To get
there, the Olympic Arts Festival established a mission to
highlight American's contribution to the arts and humanities;
to celebrate Utah and its heritage; and to embrace the West
and its Cultures.
Artists live and work in community and have the
singular ability to find the uncommon in the commonplace. As
such, the 2002 Olympic Arts Festival is artist driven. For,
like athletes, artists live on the verge of peril.
The indigenous peoples of America - the American
Indians, play a significant and contemporary role in the arts
festival. All the tribes of the Great Basin and Colorado
Plateau will gather together to curate an exhibition whose
message is durability. The monumental sculptures of Allan
Houser, a descendent of Chiricahua Apache Indians, and one of
America's most influential and respected artists, will be on
view throughout the Games.
While athletes inspire the world through peaceful
competition at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games and Paralympic
Winter Games, I have invited the 13th Reebok Human Rights
Awards to the Olympic Arts Festival to recognize activists who
have made significant contributions to human rights through
nonviolent means.
Norwegian photographer Karin Beate Nosterun will
celebrate the work of Olympic Aid in an exhibition. Nosterun's
vivid photographs document Olympic Aid's work with refugee
children in Africa.
Icon American ensembles and soloists with international
careers like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Itzhak Perlman,
Frederica von Stade, and many others will be
featured.
For perhaps the first time, we celebrate, as well, the
culinary arts. Following select cultural experiences, I've
called upon the James Beard Foundation to have celebrity chefs
compliment our artistic offerings. Some fifty chefs will
celebrate The Art of the Table!
Historical subjects are addressed in the light of
current research, as well.
The 1936 Berlin Games are
explored in an exhibition curated by the National Holocaust
Museum. Homeland in the West, an exhibition, traces the
history of Jews in Utah. And, Athletes in Antiquity, Works
from the J. Paul Getty Museum, showcases art and artifacts
illustrating Greece's cultural legacy.
In all, some 15 exhibitions, 60 signature performances
and special events, and 15 community celebrations will welcome
world visitors along with 3,500 athletes from 80 countries.
These audiences, in an important way, are assured a
place in the Olympic Movement. Their participation in the 2002
Olympic Arts Festival helps define the atmosphere of the
Games. If history is any judge, it will be an atmosphere
fondly remembered.
END OF ARTICLE
About the Author:
Raymond T. Grant is artistic
director of the 2002 Olympic Arts Festival. Prior to joining
the Salt Lake Olympic Committee, he headed the performing arts
and film area of a division of the Walt Disney Company - The
Disney Institute. He previously served as general manager of
the American Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall in New York
City. He is a graduate of the University of Kansas and holds a
Master of Arts degree in Arts Administration from New York
University.
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