London 2012 festival success signals new era for culture

 

A scene from Piccadilly Circus Circus in central London.

A new era of arts collaborations and partnerships was signalled today as the London 2012 festival came to a close and released figures that showed 19.5m people took part.
The 12-week festival was the biggest of its kind in the UK, the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad which traditionally runs alongside the sporting Olympics.
Chief executive of the Royal Opera House and Cultural Olympiad chairman, Tony Hall, said festival organisers had set out to make the festival better than any country before: "We said that with a slight trepidation, but I think what we have delivered right across the UK is absolutely that – we have done it better than anybody else before. We have had an extraordinary summer of arts and culture on a scale that has never ever been done before by any nation at the time of the Olympics."
The number of artistic collaborations and partnerships has been unprecedented and Hall said he hoped it would change the way arts organisations work. "If I think about our collaboration with the National Gallery [a Titian/Royal Ballet project], I think 'why have we not done this before?' I hope that now people have done things together that those links and contacts will continue. We have all learnt so much this summer."
Hall said the festival had made it easier for people to work on projects in the future. The festival director, Ruth Mackenzie, pointed to the example of Piccadilly Circus – which was turned into an actual circus for a day – which had never been closed for an event since VE Day. "I'm prepared to bet we're not going to have to wait as long before we can see an event of that scale and artistic ambition again," she said.
After the final weekend of festival events, including choreographer Michael Clark at Barrowlands, figures were released that showed 19.5m people took part in the festival. That figure included 16.5m taking part in free events and 2.9m ringing bells as part of Martin Creed's All the Bells artwork.
The Cultural Olympiad board will stay on for another year to work on the festival's legacy and whether such an event can become a regular fixture in the arts calendar, while Mackenzie and her team will depart over the coming months.
The cultural baton was handed on to Derry, next year's UK city of culture.