Arts First: an Olympic show

The Arts First podcast returns with an Olympic special: do the Games help us understand our history, culture and society?

Arts First is the podcast that challenges the contemporary view of the arts as tools for social change; highlights how freedom of expression is compromised by political activism and institutional cowardice; explores what is unique and special about the arts; and celebrates new artistic achievement and courage in the face of today’s challenges.

As much as we love sports, we are in the business of talking about the arts, so why the Olympics? Quite simply, the Olympics are a global event that put the arts in the spotlight, as well as sport itself. And, as we’ve stated previously, we are keen to experiment and try different formats and explore a range of subject-matter. 

However, when we first discussed the idea of doing this - a couple of weeks before the Games began – we were not entirely sure we would have something substantial and interesting talking about! 

But why wouldn’t there be? With the Olympics comes great architecture and design - grand new stadiums, impressive sporting facilities and so on. Who can forget Ai Weiwei’s incredible Birds Nest stadium for the Beijing Olympics 2008? Or the fluid geometry of Zaha Hadid’s London Aquatics Centre? 

Then, of course, there’s the opening ceremony, where the host nation draws on its best and brightest in theatre, film, costume, music and performance - only to stuff them all into their breath-taking new stadium for the greatest, most inspiring show on the planet. We, the global and local audience, sit back while they inspire us with the retelling of their national story, remind us of our common humanity, and set us up for the world’s greatest sporting spectacle. Or, at least that’s the idea…

In Beijing, a resurgent China powered onto the world stage with a polished and awe-inspiring ceremony. The UK tootled back into the global spotlight, as if on an old London bus, apologised for inventing the modern world and then threw the Queen out of a plane. Rio was supposed to put on the world’s greatest carnival, but chose instead to deliver a stultifying NGO-style lecture about ‘deforestation’. And just when we were most in need of a pick-me-up, Tokyo simply reflected back at us the lonely isolation of Covid Lockdowns.  

Paris certainly gave us a show the likes of which we’d never seen before - and not without controversy. Is it the case that each successive Games comes to crystallise a growing contestation of how we understand our history, our culture and society? 

We may not have come up with all the answers, but the Paris Olympics certainly gave us lots to talk about. Joining us we have a really great panel:

• David Adam is a cultural and economic specialist, whose work was at the heart of the London Olympics, organising exhibitions and cultural exchanges. He was responsible for London’s official Olympic brand at the Beijing Games. David is an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California and the founder of Global Cities. 

• Dido Powell is an artist and art teacher who has exhibited widely in London and around the country. She’s a regular contributor to Arts First and organises the enormously popular and brilliant gallery tour series for the Academy of Ideas Arts and Society Forum.

• Manick Govinda is an independent arts writer, adviser, creative producer, curator and artist’s mentor. He has worked with many award-winning artists in the field of contemporary visual arts and performance.

• Jane Sandeman is the chief operation officer at The Passage – a homeless charity in Westminster.  She is the convenor of the Academy of Ideas’ Parents Forum. Always an insightful commentator on a range of issues, she says her family are ‘mad about the Olympics’ and they are just back from Paris, having watched women’s volleyball and women’s rugby sevens. 

• Dr Michael Owens, Mick to his mates, is a writer and lecturer with a career background in urban development. He co-authored Play the Game: how the Olympics came to East London, building on research and his experiences working for the Mayor of London at the London Development Agency. He is a board member of Bow Arts Trust.

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