The Department for Culture, Media and Sport's Head of
Sport and Leisure, Paul Bolt, visited the South East on Friday (11
June), praising Henley's positive contribution towards the London
2012 Cultural Olympiad.
Bolt visited the Chatham Historic Dockyard, to witness first
hand some of the cultural projects that have been recognised by
London 2012s Inspire Mark programme, including 'Our Sporting Life',
which is being delivered as part of the countdown to the 2012
Olympic and Paralympic Games.
'Our Sporting Life', an initiative of the River & Rowing
Museum in Henley on Thames, is a four-year, nationwide project
developed by the Sports Heritage Network (SHN), designed to give
every community the opportunity to celebrate its sporting heritage
in the build up to the 2012 Games.
Over the next two years, a series of 100+ community exhibitions
will be held throughout the country. Built around a nationally
developed model, the community exhibitions will identify the
sporting moments, heroes, objects, photographs and experiences that
have inspired local people.
The recent Henley community exhibition celebrates the sporting
heritage and memories of local schools and sports clubs, providing
the focus to a programme of community and schools' activities at
the Museum including sports taster days, open weekends and family
events.
'Our Sporting Life' will culminate during the Games with the
world's greatest ever exhibition of Britain's sporting heritage,
hosted at a major central London venue and designed to attract over
500,000 visitors.
Commenting on his visit, Mr Bolt said, "It was an honour to
visit the South East and witness such a striking variety of
cultural and educational projects linking back to the 2012 Cultural
Olympiad. The Olympics and Paralympics have provided a springboard
for so many organisations and individuals in the South East to
unleash their creativity and achieve goals both artistically and
academically."
Louise King, National Programme Manager for Our Sporting Life,
said, "The launch of Our Sporting Life at Henley has been a
tremendous success, not only invigorating local people about the
power and role of grass roots sports in their community but also
showcasing the wealth of sporting talent we have in the area. We've
had a huge number of visitors from across the region and beyond and
it's great to see local young people inspired by some of the
previously forgotten heroes, whose stories of success and triumph
have been retold for the exhibition.
"Henley is the first of many exhibitions to come and we're
delighted with the interest from other museums and cultural venues
keen to put on their own Our Sporting Life exhibitions, all
building towards the biggest show of all for The London 2012
Olympic and Paralympic Games"
You can contribute to 'Our Sporting Life' by submitting your
sporting memory on the website
www.oursportinglife.co.uk
Caterina Loriggio, Creative Programmer for London 2012, South
East, said, "The Cultural Olympiad is using the power of the
Olympic and Paralympic Games to inspire creativity across all forms
of culture, especially amongst young people. To date 30 cultural
projects in the South East have been recognised through the Inspire
Programme and over 265 events have been delivered as part of Open
Weekend; it was fantastic to showcase the best of these to the DCMS
today. The people of Henley will be able to enjoy these and many
more projects in the run up to Games time and their legacy will
impact well beyond 2012."
