I am in Brazil during the first week in August 2015 to meet with key figures behind Rio’s 2016 Olympic Games preparations, as part of my assessment of the event’s cultural legacy. With one year to go until the opening ceremony, I am meeting with Carla Camurati, Director of the Rio 2016 Cultural Olympiad; the Secretary of…
From the 1st to the 3rd September I contributed to the second ‘Future of Places’ global conference, hosted in Buenos Aires by the Ax:On Johnson Foundation with support from UN-Habitat. The focus of the conference was debating the role of the streets as public spaces and drivers of urban prosperity. I presented a paper titled: Media Event…
Find here access to a completely re-designed version of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad Evaluation Summary, including a more accessible and visually attractive overview of key statistics and related qualitative findings. You can also download a PDF version here. Check the Full Report and related Appendices in the dedicated London 2012 Cultural Olympiad Evaluation Project…
Full reference: Garcia, B. (2014) ‘The Olympic Games Cultural Narrative: Ceremonies, Cultural Olympiads and Look of the Games as platforms to project the host city and nation”, Russian International Olympic University Herald, 2014(1), pp. 112-120. The Olympic Games is recognized worldwide as the largest sports mega-event – certainly the event attracting the largest amount of…
Follow me on twitter (@beatriz_garcia); flickr! and via the Culture @ the Olympics magazine to read daily commentary, analysis and view top images from the Sochi 2014 Cultural Olympiad, Ceremonies, Look of the Games and all related cultural narrative. I am based in Sochi for the duration of the Winter Olympic Games, from the 7…
The Russian Olympic University press has just published a translation of my and Prof Andy Miah’s book, The Olympics: The Basics into Russian.
In November 2011, the major stakeholders in the Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival commissioned Beatriz Garcia at the Institute of Cultural Capital (ICC) to produce an assessment of the multiple impacts of hosting the Cultural Olympiad. The final report has been published in April 2013. Download the ExecutiveSummary or the Full Report. The ICC…
Published in September 2012, issue 257 (http://artsprofessional.co.uk/Magazine/view.cfm?id=6460&issue=257) Full article below A cultural blueprint Beatriz Garcia reflects on the Cultural Olympiad and the learning that can be passed on to Games hosts of the future. The London 2012 Games mark precisely 100 years since the first official commitment to presenting cultural and artistic activity…
The opening of the London 2012 Games marks 100 years since the emergence of an arts and cultural programme at the Olympic Games. What is the rationale for such programme and how has it evolved over time? How does it shape the world’s largest mega event? In whose benefit is it delivered? This book situates…
2011, Jan 28-29, Birkbeck University, London Conference: LEARNING FROM BARCELONA: ART, REAL ESTATE AND THE PRE-OLYMPIC CITY This two-day workshop brought together for the first time academics, social activists and artists from Barcelona and London to discuss, through position papers and the showing of participants’ artistic and cultural production, how the Olympic Games in each…
2010, Dec 15: IOC Lausanne. #media2012: Citizen media as a platform for cultural representation at the Olympic Games Paper presented at the Olympic headquarters in Lausanne in my role as member of the IOC Postgraduate Grant Selection Committee. The presentation outlines ongoing plans around London 2012 to build a community of citizen journalists who will…
Contribution to panel within the #media 2012 conference at the Abandon Normal Devices festival in Manchester Panel Debate: Journalism, Sport & Culture: Integrated visions? What do the 2012 Games cultures of sport, cultural expression and media have in common? Is there scope to develop a common vision that promotes a wider contribution to the civic…
I have been conducting research on the Olympic Games cultural dimension since 1999, in particular, the Cultural Olympiad or official Olympic Arts Festivals. Case studies to date include Sydney 2000, Salt Lake 2002, Athens 2004, Torino 2006 and Beijing 2008. Since 2004, I am also acting as academic observer and advisor to the London 2012…
Originally published by the Centre for Olympic Studies, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, within their Beijing Olympic Games Series [link] Full text below The gigantism of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games was mirrored in the ambition of its cultural programme, though the nuance of its delivery is a more intricate story, where its vast investment into…
Presentation to the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad / Creative Programmers meeting in Liverpool, 19th November 2008 Summary: By 2012, cultural programming at the Olympics will be in its 100th year. Programming has evolved from medal-awarding Olympic Arts Competitions into Olympic Arts Exhibitions and since 1988 (in the lead to the Barcelona 1992 Games), four year…
Emergent Journalistic Practice at the Olympics In: 9th International Symposium on Olympic Research, International Centre for Olympic Studies, University of Western Ontario & Beijing Capital Universiy Chair: Andy Miah Panel: Ana Adi, Beatriz Garcia, Kris Krug, Garry Whannel, Tina Zhihui. Research into the role of the media within the Olympic Movement has focused predominantly on…
Full reference: Garcia, B. (2008) ‘One Hundred Years of Cultural Programming within the Olympic Games (1912-2012): Origins, evolution and projections‘ in: International Journal of Cultural Policy, (vol 14, n 4) (pp 361-376) The Olympic Games is recognized worldwide as the largest sports mega-event – certainly the event attracting the largest amount of media coverage globally. As well…
Garcia, B. ‘Living the multicultural Olympic city. Cultural policy and planning in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Summer Games’, in: Gold, J.R. & Gold, M.M. (Eds) Olympic Cities: Urban planning, city agendas and the World’s Games, 1896 to the present, London: Routledge, pp. 237-264 (2007) This chapter studies Sydney’s experience as an Olympic city from…
Garcia, B. and Miah, A. (2007) ‘New Beijing, Great Journalism? Media Freedom During the Beijing Olympic Games period’ in session: Asian Olympic Games and/as Media, Ubiquitous Media: Asian Transformations, Theory, Culture and Society 25th Anniversary Conference, Tokyo (13-16 July 2007) [presentation] The issue of defining who is a journalist, what rights they have, how they…
Miah. A. and Garcia, B. (2006) Invited Plenary Speaker: ‘Non-Accredited Media, Olympic Games and the Host City’ in Communication Forum 2006: Global Olympiad, Chinese Media, National Center for Radio and Television Studies, Communication University of China and Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania (Beijing, July 2006) Since their inauguration in 1896, the Modern Olympic…