Rude Awakening
by Charlie Tims
culture is often used in Olympic games programming to market cities to tourists across the world. My point was that London already has enough tourists and a presence on the world stage (unlike many previous Olympic hosts) and besides, the evidence suggests that any increase in tourists is hard to sustain. I tried to argue that cultural programming surrounding the games, has to be about more than just attracting tourists. If we want a long term legacy culture has to be used to enrich the lives of young people. In an increasingly complex and changing world young people will need culture to help place themselves in the world and the skills of creativity to help them navigate it. If done rightly the olympics presents a great opportunity to push this. I know it's like motherhood and apple pie, but you know, just in case you want to complain send your abuse here (no throwing stones in the greenhouse). You can read more of a demos pamphlet looking at the Olympic legacy here. It's called After the Gold Rush. Thanks to the totally tapika people at Discover for letting us film there.