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Running rings around the world
Australia's culture takes centre stage
Australia's Olympic Arts Festival may well set a record of its own, according to its director. Leo Schofield says the Arts Festival for the Olympics 2000 will be the longest such festival ever mounted, and the biggest arts festival ever staged in Australia. He talked to Artbeat about the festival.
Last year the Australia International Cultural Council (AICC) launched its strategy for promoting Australia's culture abroad. Now it seems one of our best opportunities to do that begins on our own shores, with the 2000 Olympics. As the Games approach, are you still confident that this is still the case?
I certainly am. One of the things festivals do is provide Australian artists (and audiences!) with a chance to measure their performances against those of world-ranking companies. This contextualisation is particularly strong in the Olympic Arts Festival. Take dance, for instance. In the Pina Bausch Company, DV8, Cloudgate and Bill T. Jones you have four of the most significant dance ensembles in the world. It is in this context that the Australian companies-The Australian Ballet, the Sydney Dance Company and Bangarra-will perform. Nothing but good can come out of such juxtapositions.
In terms of promotion and programming, how would you describe the relationship between the Games, and the arts festival?
Put simply, the Olympic Games is the greatest festival of them all. Overwhelming. Of course the focus will always be primarily on sport, but every country hosting the Games has the chance to display its culture as well. I think we may well do this better than most.
Did you design the program of events with a definite focus-in terms of capitalising on existing overseas interest in Australia?
There are two markets for the Olympics Arts Festival-the local one and the overseas one. Within the confines of the budget I have tried to provide attractions for both groups.
The Sydney Festival was very successful-even financially successful. Will you be using the same criteria for making decisions about the Olympics Arts Festival's program?
For me, the key performance indicator for any festival is its artistic impact. That said, it is impossible in these economic rationalist times not to measure success in financial terms. I will be delighted if the Olympic Arts Festival is an artistic success and either breaks even or makes a modest surplus. It will be one of the biggest challenges faced by any festival director in Australia, satisfying a broad audience and at the same time, making a significant artistic impression. Incidentally, running over almost two months, this will be the longest Olympic Arts Festival ever mounted and certainly the biggest arts festival ever staged in Australia.
There seems to be a particularly strong visual arts component to the program as it stands. Was that a decision made early on in the planning, or did this evolve over time?
Given that many visitors to the Olympic Games will not have English as a first language, a decision was taken to place special emphasis on two art forms that are not language dependent-dance and the visual arts. We have assumed that visitors will be interested in seeing a range of work by contemporary Australian artists, and we have programmed the exhibitions accordingly. Any visitor doing the rounds of public and private galleries will engage in a kind of biennale, so broad will be the spectrum of contemporary work on offer. There is, of course, a particular emphasis on Aboriginal art, which is of particular interest to international visitors.
The importance of marketing the arts is now widely accepted. Even at such a large event, were you concerned that the Games themselves might throw a shadow over attendances at arts festival events? What were some of the important marketing decisions made about the Olympic Arts Festival?
Some 35 per cent of the tickets to the Olympic Arts Festival have already been sold and some events have sold out. This suggests our marketing is on target. We sought to suggest the scale and rarity of the events. We also treated each attraction equally, sometimes downplaying major attractions. This has had the effect of intriguing a public accustomed to attractions listed in an hierarchical fashion, big names with top billing, less well-known companies afforded less space. We have done virtually the opposite.
Obviously the Olympics has many large sponsors. Have you found it difficult to attract additional sponsors or cultural partnerships to the arts component of the Olympics? How important have those cultural partnerships been to the success of the Olympic Arts Festival?
We have not sought sponsors in any aggressive way. Rather we have chosen to work with local companies to help them broker support. The Games themselves have key sponsors and many other potential supporters are excluded by pre-existing arrangements.
What do you hope will be the outcome for the arts as a result of the Olympics being hosted in Australia?
The earlier starting date of the Festival, the fact that it doesn't go head-to-head with the sporting events, will, I hope, mean greater international coverage and a new awareness of Australia's artistic achievement both internationally and locally. I am very optimistic that artists will be stimulated by participation and, more importantly, that the expectation of local audiences will be heightened.
Tickets to the Olympic Arts Festival events are available through Ticketek.
For program details and other information concerning the Olympic Arts Festival go to the official Olympic Games website at www.olympics.com .