Supporting a wide range of innovative cultural and sporting activities for all, which celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and which will leave a lasting legacy in communities throughout the United Kingdom
For Immediate Release

Legacy Trust UK Approve Proposals For 2012 Olympic Celebrations Across UK

To ignite ambition and to celebrate the hosting of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games the Legacy Trust UK has approved an outline proposal for a range of activities and events across the UK's nations and regions.

Each nation and region has chosen a theme under which to develop a programme of activities that will leave a legacy of the 2012 Games in communities throughout the UK. The themes1 range from 'Moving Together' a programme to encourage mass community participation in sport, cultural activity and dance in the West Midlands to 'The Power of the Flame in Wales', using the arts to develop capacity in communities and 'i move .·. i am' - a four year exploration of the moving body across all cultural forms, sports and science which aims to transform the way people feel and think about their moving bodies in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Dugald Mackie, Chair of Board of Legacy Trust UK, said: "Legacy Trust UK has allocated funds to each region and country of the UK to develop and support innovative and exciting projects in communities embracing the values of the 2012 Games. The outline proposals so far submitted are inspirational and certainly fit the bill. We look forward to working with each nation and region to make these projects a reality and to leave a lasting legacy throughout the UK."

At the board meeting on 19th March, Legacy Trust UK approved outline proposals for the use of its allocated funding (approximately 50% of the total endowment) to eleven2 of the twelve nations and regions. This funding is approved to enable each area to work up a detailed business plan working in partnership to deliver programmes including culture, knowledge, sport and well-being leaving a lasting legacy in communities as a result of London 2012.

It is intended that Legacy Trust UK funds will act as a catalyst for activities which will attract other funding and ensure a truly UK wide experience of the Olympic and Paralympic Games by building on and strengthening existing partnerships and joining sport and culture in new and innovative activities.

The strategy to allocate funding through the Regional Cultural Consortia in England and Government, Arts and Sports organisations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is to ensure that there is UK wide funding and activity in support of London 2012. The funding is roughly allocated with the following split – Culture 70% and Sport 30%.

Each nation and region has until mid June to submit a detailed business plan showing what activities will be delivered, who will be involved and how this will leave a lasting legacy in communities throughout the UK.

They have also identified additional funding and in kind support to help realise the ambition of doubling the size of the endowment to £80 million.

Ends//

For further UK wide information please contact Moira Swinbank, LTUK, CEO on 07740 422673 www.legacytrustuk.com.

Yorkshire & the Humber Contact
Tessa Gordziejko
Creative Programmer for London 2012
Yorkshire Culture
Round Foundry Media Centre
Foundry Street
Leeds
LS11 5QP
t: 0113 394 4579
m: 07879 694716
e: tgordziejko@yorkshire-culture.co.uk
www.yorkshire-culture.co.uk

Notes to editors

Legacy Trust UK has been established as a charitable trust to use funding endowed by the Big Lottery Fund, Arts Council England and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The total endowment is £40million with £6million ring fenced for the UK Schools Games.

LEGACY TRUST UK – activities in the nations and regions with allocated funding

Allocations of funds based on a base line per nation or region of £500,000 and then weighted according to population and deprivation formed part of the final bid to establish Legacy Trust UK. These allocations were announced at the Legacy Trust UK launch on 20th November 2007.

North East - Generation 2012

Generation 2012 will act as a catalyst of creative opportunity for young people in the North West. It will achieve this through the democratisation of cultural production, engagement and decision making in order to increase access to and active participation in culture. The programme will do this via new collaborations between groups and teams of young people who are communities of interest. Using the vision of 2012 and the diverse audience the Olympics and Paralympics attracts; these communities of interest could include groups of skateboarders, a table tennis team or collectors of Harry Potter cards. These teams will become cultural drivers with selected partnerships, interpreting their activities and pastimes into a new and innovative public presentation of their collaboration.

North West - We Play

We Play – a programme of regional work especially developed around the theme of 'play' for the Cultural Olympiad programme in the Northwest. The theme of 'play' identified for the legacy programme is broadly defined as any physical or mental leisure activity for enjoyment and no other objective. 'Play' may assist learning and self-development. Individuals or groups of people of all ages can play spontaneously or as part of a planned activity. The theme of play also encompasses the activities of experimentation, risk taking and new ways of doing things and has a cross cutting relevance to the different disciplines connected to the Olympic and Paralympic games such as art, sport, science and technology.

Yorkshire and the Humber – 'i move .·. i am'

i move .·. i am will comprise events, ambience and programmes of activity inspired by the vision of the modern Olympics as the pinnacle of human achievement in culture and sport; and the Olympic values of body, mind and spirit. Using the 2012 opportunity to supercharge aspirations for positive change around the individual, and society's relationship with the moving body, i move .·. will form part of Yorkshire's Cultural Olympiad programme.

West Midlands – Moving Together

Moving Together aims to create a step change in the number and range of people in the West Midlands who take part in dance and sporting activity. It will bring people together for community activities of all kinds from across generations, cultures, religious backgrounds, races, social groups and geographical locations with the aim of creating exchange between people who otherwise would not interact with each other, and contributing to their physical and mental well-being. The programme will encourage community participation in sport, cultural activity and dance, to encourage people to get their bodies moving, to take up dance and sport so that it becomes an integral part of people's lives.

East Midlands – Igniting Ambition: The East Midlands Great Exhibition

To ignite ambition and celebrate the hosting of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Culture East Midlands will lead on driving a series of partnerships which create each year a different showcase festival, before culminating in 2012 in a unique, region-wide, festival of cultural events provisionally entitled The East Midlands Great Exhibition. The Great Exhibition will be held over a five-month period, May-September 2012, incorporating arts and media, heritage, science, sports and well-being activities. The region will welcome the world to this Great Exhibition both through local involvement and through active promotion to visitors, domestic and overseas. Four annual showcases will precede the Great Exhibition, including a cultural festival programme to accompany the 2009 UK Special Olympics in Leicester.

East of England – Step Up

Step Up is a programme to improve and enhance young peoples' skills to support major cultural and sporting events in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games and beyond. The programme consists of two core phases: skills development;
Personal Best – regional implementation of the successful, LSC-accredited 'pre-volunteering' programme developed in London, designed to encourage workless individuals (16+) to gain new skills, lift their aspirations and create new career choices.
Get Set! – a modular course to teach skills for the management and production of cultural and sporting 'events' – from carnivals to sports tournaments, film festivals to major museum exhibitions. We will seek accreditation through appropriate bodies and regional structures.
and major events;
The two training programmes will culminate in a series of high-profile, high-quality, public events in 2011 and 2012, at which 'graduates' of the programme will play an integral role in the professional delivery of major cultural and sporting activities.

London – Big Dance

Big Dance will embrace the widest possible definition of dance and the broadest spectrum of activity. It will engage London’s communities and engage artists with communities across the city. There will be first-time encounter events, pathways to deepen engagement, new commissions of innovative and surprising work of international significance and everything in between. There will be strands of activity that are locally specific, strands that are replicated across all areas, and strands that draw together participants from across the City in keynote high-profile events. The unifying ambition is to encourage participation in physical activity and culture.

South West - Relays

RELAYS will inspire and engage young people and their diverse communities to participate in, produce and promote cultural work and sporting activity that is respectful of, and responsive to, place and people. It will take their learning forward and generate a positive legacy beyond the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games through the establishment of new sustainable festivals and events, an enhanced distinctive regional cultural tourism offer and the development of knowledge and skills.

South East - Accentuate

ACCENTUATE is a ground-breaking inclusive project that takes the milestones, values and achievements of the Paralympic Movement, which started in the South Eastregion, as inspiration for real and lasting change and the promotion of excellence. Through accentuating the Paralympic movement as a potential catalyst, we will promote new ways of thinking, doing and being - where disabled people of all ages can access real opportunities.

Wales – The Power of the Flame

The Power of the Flame is developing four major umbrella themes to deliver an ambitious programme. These are

  • Kindling the Talent;
  • Cauldrons and Furnaces:
  • Following the Flame;
  • Prometheus

Kindling the Talent will offer young people opportunities for personal development through a competitive framework of artistic and sporting events at local, regional and national levels. Cauldrons and Furnaces will aim to combine all of the arts at some of the extraordinary landmark sites of Wales. Following the Flame is designed as a major touring exhibition of Welsh Olympians, including an oral history project and community workshops to explore sporting achievements through the arts. Prometheus will allow disabled people unique opportunities to perform with world-class musical organisations using state-of-the-art science and technology.

Northern Ireland – "Connections – Connecting Cultures : Inspiring Excellence"

A programme has been defined which will, in the process of delivery, tackle aspects of - Personal Development / Communication / Physical 'literacy'. It includes a: -

Dance/sport project - that seeks to cross reference prowess as a dancer with performance as a sports person and share the secrets of performance and the enjoyment emanating from both forms of physical activity. This project will also (specifically) look at how communication happens without words.
Gymnastics / Physical Theatre project –that will examine the connection between these two disparate activities
Music and poetry / sport project - that will explore the importance of rhythm in performance
Disability arts /sport project (to be defined)
Children's Sport /Children's Theatre project. (to be defined)
Visual Arts and Film / Sport project – that will extend the national
'Video Nation' project to specifically address the body in sport
Scotland - to follow

  1. See notes to editors for overview of UK proposals
  2. Legacy Trust UK has been established as a charitable trust to use funding endowed by the Big Lottery Fund, Arts Council England and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The total endowment is £40million with £6million ring fenced for the UK Schools Games
  3. Scotland is working to a longer timetable taking account of the Commonwealth Games too and will submit the outline proposal shortly.