Warming up for the Cultural Olympiad …
Sport is all well and good but there’s the cultural legacy of the 2032 Olympic Games and the state’s creative sector say this as an opportunity that can’t be missed.
Sports tend to be universal, and that’s the beauty. They have rules and structure, so no matter where in the world they’re played, it’s familiar.
So too for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. For the 500,000 people who are expected to visit Queensland for the Games in 2032, and the three billion who will be watching around the globe, they’ll know what to expect. While the contests will be intriguing and exhilarating, there will be nothing unique about the sports that are played. What should be unique are the cultural experiences that visitors and watchers will have.
A visit to an Olympic and Paralympic city – Brisbane in 2032 – should leave a lasting cultural impression. The sport will be fantastic, it always is, but the long-term impact will come from what visitors see, hear and experience elsewhere. Above all, we want them to remember how Brisbane and Queensland made them feel. That’s why it’s vital that we shape the experiences and impressions we want them to have.
It’s expected that we will welcome about half a million visitors to our city and state across both Games. Anecdotal data from Paris, Tokyo, Rio and London indicates they’ll see, on average, two to three sporting events while they’re here. So, how do we help them fill in the rest of their time? We give them myriad opportunities to experience our culture, everywhere.
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Building cultural legacies around Brisbane 2032 is critically important – because we need to ensure that our cities and towns, our communities, and our creatives realise permanent benefits from activities associated with the Games. It’s the “what’s in it for us?” piece and it is a legitimate question to pose.
While responsibility for actually delivering specific cultural events associated with the Games will rest with governments and the Games organising committee, those members of our community who actually provide cultural experiences every day need to inform the decision-making.
To develop cultural legacies for Queensland, we need to take definitive and deliberate steps to invest in it.
What those legacies could look like is at the core of the Creative Brisbane Collab. 2032 Cultural Legacies Project. This month, more than 120 arts, business and community leaders will come together in a workshop to start their process to identify the essential elements and opportunities for arts and cultural engagement in and around the Games.
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Brisbane and Queensland’s cultural legacies should be shaped by the people and organisations on the ground – the creative thinkers and knowledge holders who are deeply invested in our cultural fabric. The 2032 Cultural Legacies Project will provide a platform to hear and capture some voices that are not often heard. Small, independent artists and operators will sit alongside some of the state’s major arts organisations. First Nations artists, artists with a disability and young and emerging creatives will not only lead discussions about what legacy looks like for them but will share their insights with academics and business leaders.
‘Our ambition should be to showcase the best in art, culture and creativity to the world’
Crucially, we need to understand the capability and capacity of Queensland’s diverse arts, cultural and creative sector to deliver on a global stage – and then determine what investment is needed to ensure we put on the best show possible in 2032.
When LA 2028 ends, a phalanx of Olympic and Paralympic consultants will start arriving on our shores and, while they should be welcomed and their experience embraced, we must ensure that overseas experts don’t determine our cultural legacies. We have the skills, talent and passion right here in our own backyard. We might need some investment to build capability and capacity (that will be a legacy in itself), but we must protect and promote what makes Brisbane and Queensland unique by bolstering our local creatives and supporting them to thrive and shine as the world turns its eyes to us.
Our ambition should be to showcase the best in art, culture and creativity to the world before, during and after the Games – particularly our ancient and profound Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island cultures. But we can’t leave that ambition to chance. We need to ensure we have the experience and ability to realise it.
Brisbane and Queensland’s Olympic and Paralympic Games cultural legacies will not begin and end over a few weeks in 2032. They will develop over a multi-year runway to build anticipation and competency, followed by years of cultural prosperity. Beyond sport, the Games represent a once-only opportunity to showcase our vibrant creative communities to the world. That will be something to remember.
Barton Green is chair of Creative Brisbane Collab. – bringing the corporate and creative sectors together to advocate for creativity as a driving force in city life and the economy.