February 2, 2008 (Vancouver, BC) – Cultural Olympiad 2008 launched a multi-year celebration of arts, culture and creativity yesterday, staged as part of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Running February 1 to March 21, 2008 in more than 40 venues throughout Metro Vancouver and British Columbia’s Sea-to-Sky corridor, this seven-week celebration of the imagination offers an exhilarating program of contemporary talent and creative collaborations. More than 300 free and ticketed performances and exhibitions fall under the Cultural Olympiad 2008 umbrella, spanning music, dance, visual arts, literary arts, theatre, film and new media. This is the first time a Winter Games has hosted a Cultural Olympiad two years before Games time.

“Cultural Olympiad 2008 marks the start of a remarkable three-year cultural program, culminating in the 2010 Olympic Arts Festival and 2010 Paralympic Arts Festival,” said David Guscott, VANOC executive vice president, Celebrations and Partnerships. “Canada’s rich cultural heritage and dynamic arts community serve as exceptional vehicles to capture the soul of our nation, both within our own borders and around the globe.”

Co-presented in partnership with 60 arts and culture organizations, Cultural Olympiad 2008 highlights the vitality and breadth of Canada’s creative community. Other performances provide audiences a window through which to explore Canada’s intercultural connections and abundant cultural diversity.

“Cultural Olympiad 2008 is the result of a unique and exciting collaboration with Canada’s creative community,” said Burke Taylor, VANOC vice president, Culture and Celebrations. “From the outset, our commitment has been to build a program in partnership that reflects the artistic excellence, innovation and diversity of our partners’ work and that sparks broad participation.”

Cultural Olympiad 2008 will make use of many well-known cultural venues as well as non-traditional spaces, from city streets and parks to snow-covered fields. Look for performances suspended from buildings, such as One Icy Urban Spire, an aerial dance performance balanced on the ledges and colonnades of the Vancouver Public Library, or in historic mines, such SAM2 Performance and Workshop at Britannia Beach’s Museum of Mining, where movement and instruments crafted from scrap metal create powerful percussive performances.

With 79 events to choose from, the festival also explores values that figure prominently in the Olympic and Paralympic Movements, such as inclusion, excellence and respect for cultural diversity. bhangra:authentic, part of the International Bhangra Festival, Beijing Stories, a series of films reflecting on contemporary China, and The Spirit of Haida Gwaii, a remarkable convergence of Haida culture, Coast Salish ceremony and oratorio, all provide a glimpse of other cultures through an artistic lens. Wheelchair Dancesport features dancers with a disability and those who are able-bodied in a competition that challenges conventional notions of ballroom dancing. Cultural Olympiad 2008 also brings together, under one banner, such cultural icons as jazz legend Ornette Coleman and emerging talents like Balkan Beat Box, whose “A to Z” fusion of music styles is a rousing aural tour around the globe.

The works of visual arts masters Kutlug Ataman (Paradise and Kűba) and Lida Abdul (An Exhibition of Works) provide a stunning portrait of contemporary realities in other parts of the world. Treasures of the Tsimshian from the Dundas Collection showcases important cultural pieces hidden away for more than a century.

“From 2008 through 2010, we have an extraordinary opportunity to celebrate the state of the art of Canada’s creative community, to reveal its innovative spirit, diverse character and global connections,” said Robert Kerr, VANOC program director, Cultural Olympiad. ”With something for everyone, Cultural Olympiad 2008 presents an eclectic cross-section of our vibrant cultural scene that can be explored and enjoyed in a wide variety of public spaces.”

Two-year Countdown Concert — February 12
One of the highlights of this year’s program is a February 12 concert at the Orpheum Theatre, marking the two-year countdown to the 2010 Winter Games. Headlining a dazzling lineup of Canadian talent is Grammy nominee Feist, one of today’s hottest talents taking the music world by storm. Her performance will include five songs with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra featuring world premier orchestral arrangements commissioned by the Cultural Olympiad. The concert also includes indie singer-songwriters from across Canada: Toronto-based singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith; Montreal singer-cellist Jorane ; Vancouver-based singer-songwriter Leela Gilday (2007 Juno Award winner for Aboriginal album of the year); and Toronto-based performer Suzie McNeil, who released an Olympic- and Paralympic-inspired video of her hit song Believe.

For a complete list of Cultural Olympiad 2008 events and ticket information, visit www.vancouver2010.com.

History of the Cultural Olympiad
As the second pillar of Olympism, culture plays a vital role in the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who in 1894 founded the modern Olympic movement, took inspiration from ancient Greece, where the famous games of Olympia included events involving both the best athletes and artists of the day. De Coubertin believed that the artistic component to the Games would highlight different cultures, helping to promote understanding and peace between nations.

In the first modern Olympic Games, medals were awarded to artists for merit in various disciplines. This Games component eventually evolved into a cultural festival, the first of which was held at the Helsinki 1952 Winter Games. Today, as part of the Olympic charter, Host Cities are required to produce wide-reaching cultural programs that showcase their country’s culture and traditions.

Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad will present some of the finest in Canadian and international arts and culture through a series of three festivals. Cultural Olympiad 2008 launches this multi-year celebration. An expanded program will take place in 2009, followed with the 2010 Olympic Arts Festival (January 22 to February 28, 2010) and 2010 Paralympic Arts Festival (March 12 to 21, 2010). The three festivals will deliver in total 160 days of celebration with more than 1,000 performances – hundreds of them free of charge.