The founder of the modern Olympics, Baron de Coubertin, was inspired by the revival of the classic event at the Shropshire village of Much Wenlock in 1850 by a local GP, “to promote the moral, physical and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants of the Town and neighbourhood of Wenlock”.
“Coubertin’s main influence from Much Wenlock was the force of life, not sporting excellence” said Jonathan Edwards, the Olympic gold medallist. “It’s not about who can be the fastest, it’s about whole of life and at the heart of it is a belief in human potential”.
Which is why the cultural element, not part of the annual Much Wenlock event but at the core of Coubertin’s thinking, is so important, he said, as he inaugurated Creative Campus Projects, part of the Cultural Olympiad.
This is the initiative of 13 university campuses around he South East of England, led by Seymour Roworth-Stokes, pro-vice chancellor of the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham.
“The Olympics can be an expression of artistic creativity, and that’s what we’ve come together to do in this corner of the country” he said. “It will open up the cultural resources and assets of our campuses, providing greater access to world-leading, practice-based research in the creative and performing arts.”
There are over 100 events running through the four summer months, and more than half a million are expected to see something of them.
A number of them will involve disabled artists, including the ensemble Sign Dance Collective, who performed at the Creative Campus launch at the Southbank Centre. The two dancers were Isolte Avila, Cuban-born who has been crippled with arthritis since childhood, and David Bowers, the deaf creator of the group and also a singer who came to fame as the brother of the Hugh Grant character at whose wedding he sings in Four Weddings and a Funeral.
“We are making a new piece for Creative Campus, New Gold” said Avila. “Singing is part of the performance, part of the choreography, and the arts for me is to dance so that I make use of my disability rather than a problem.”
Sign dance Collective is being presented by Buckinghamshire New University whose head of research, Paul Springer, is being the commission. “The Olympics and Paralympics is a celebration of self-expression and a lot of research is being done by universities, so what will be presented will be very surprising and fascinating” he said.
Artists are collaborating with students, academics and communities to create new work which has been inspired by the Olympic spirit.
Other offerings are the University of Kent’s Spectators, a film project involving a cinematographer, an artist and an equestrian. Degrees of Difficulty from Thames Valley University is a musical celebration of Olympic diving.
Creative Campus has been given the Olympic Inspire mark, said Jonathan Edwards. “These performers are inspired by the Olympic ideal, and we will be inspired by their performances” he said. “That’s why sport and education sit alongside eachother, both about human potential, both about making the most out of life. This will make a difference to lots of younger people, and older people who haven’lt been able to realise their potential” he said.
The participating institutions in six parts of the region are Buckinghamshire New University and Oxford Brookes University; the University of Portsmouth, the University of Southampton and Southampton Solent University; the University of the Creative Arts in Farnham and the University of Winchester; the University of Brighton and the University of Sussex; Canterbury Christ Church University and the University of Kent; Royal Holloway University of London and Thames Valley University.
