2005-11-23
Managing Olympism as "Sport + Art"
Interview by Patricia Dewey (Arts Management Network Correspondent) with Raymond T. Grant, Artistic Director of the 2002 Olympic Arts Festival, Salt Lake Organizing Committee, Olympic Winter Games of 2002
The 2002 Olympic Arts Festival is the arts festival associated with the 2002 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The Festival will run in conjunction with the Salt Lake Games, February 1, 2002 through March 16, 2002 and will include more than 60 performances, 15 major exhibitions and 50 community programs and exhibitions in multiple venues throughout Salt Lake City, in the state of Utah, U.S.A.
In a recent telephone interview, Raymond Grant, artistic director of the Festival, shared some goals, challenges and opportunities associated with arts administration for the Olympics. This article summarizes Grants responses to interview questions from the perspective of valuable insight to be shared with professional arts managers throughout the world.
Olympic Ideals and the Arts
The Olympic games have always encouraged the arts to be an integral part of what is generally acknowledged as the pinnacle of global sports competition. In fact, the Delphi games started in 560 b.c. as a music competition: competition in sports was later added to the games. At the founding of the modern Olympic Games in 1896, Olympism was defined as "sport plus art."
"Cultural programs, as required elements of the modern Olympic Games are totally in keeping with the origins and history of the ancient festival where sculpture, poetry, music and political idealism were bound together with athletic competition and religious celebration," writes David Gilman Romano, a classical archaeologist from the University of Pennsylvania in his essay, Culture and Tradition: The Ancient Olympic Games.
According to Raymond Grant, the arts competed alongside sports in the Olympic Games from 1906 to 1948. Then, in the 1950s, a shift took place from competition to creation and presentation, as the responsibility for the arts moved to the host organizing committee for each Olympics. Nonetheless, the arts have remained an integral component of the Olympic Games as the cultural context of this social gathering continues to transcend the level of sports competition.
In 2002, the Olympic Arts Festival celebrates Utah and is heritage, embraces the West and its cultures and highlights the United States' contributions to the arts and humanities. The festivities that surround the sports competitions - the concerts, performances, exhibitions, awards and community events define and create a cultural legacy of the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games and Paralympic Winter Games.
Arts Management Goals for the 2002 Festival
As artistic director, Raymond Grant's major goals for the Arts Festival are twofold: (1) to bring new artistic works into existence; and (2) to cultivate an atmosphere in which artists can create. Grant does not see his role as that of an "artistic czar," but rather as that of a facilitator to allow the creative process to move forward. He aspires to provide a creative environment from which newly commissioned works may become valuable elements of future repertoire, performances, and exhibits. Rather than just showcasing the arts, Grant is focusing on both fostering artistic creativity and revealing the creative process.
In designing the program for the 2002 Arts Festival, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee was influenced in many of its planning decisions from insight gained from previous Olympic Games in Atlanta and Sydney. Grant notes that "experience sharing" is becoming increasingly formalized within the Olympic community. Early in the decision making process, it was determined that the Salt Lake Arts Festival not be an international arts festival representing all countries, but rather a festival to highlight America's contributions to the arts. Where Atlanta stretched out the festival over many years, and Sydney utilized an approach of exporting Australian artistic talent, the Salt Lake Committee decided to concentrate the festival from February 1 through March 16, when world visitors would actually be in Utah.
From extensive preliminary research, the Committee learned that, throughout the world, awareness and understanding of Salt Lake City and Utah is minimal. Moreover, a false identity of the American West has been created through diverse media images. Grant sees a crucial role for the arts and humanities associated with the 2002 Olympic Games to "debunk the myth of the West." While he concedes that it may be impossible to obliterate stereotypes of the American West, he hopes to cultivate a fuller understanding of the West and its cultural heritage, as well as the achievements of American artists including Native artists.
Driven by a clearly articulated vision statement and mission statement, a major goal of arts management in the context of the Olympics is to create a programmatic balance whereby the Festival will resonate among local residents as well as world visitors. Similar to prior Olympic arts festivals, Salt Lake City expects roughly 70% to75% of attendees to be local residents; in fact, already 73% of ticket sales have been to persons located within a 45 minute drive of the festival venues. A major impact of the arts festival is "local pride of authorship." Grant mentions that the arts are often taken for granted in Salt Lake City, and that the Olympics provide an ideal vehicle for increasing awareness and visibility of local arts organizations.
An interesting cultural programming decision has been to re-institute competition through two events. First, an ice sculpting competition will take place among 30 international teams; second, an Olympic command performance rodeo will take place between a Canadian and American team. Olympic cultural participation medals will be awarded.
The 2002 Olympic Arts Festival Administration
Overseeing a total project budget of approximately $35 million, the 2002 Olympic Arts Festival is run by a skeleton staff of five full-time arts administrators with the support of a valuable team of dedicated volunteers. In addition to Raymond Grant as artistic director, the arts administration team is comprised of a programming director, a talent coordinator who coordinates travel logistics, an attorney who handles the contracts and also serves as Grant's assistant, and a volunteer coordinator.
The professional arts administration team is able to manage this large-scale festival through innovative partnerships with local arts organizations. In these relationships, the Arts Festival staff have investigated artistic ideas, shared ideas for works of art, and promoted various world-renowned artists for programmatic decisions within the local arts partnerships. For example, Grant promoted Itzhak Perlman as a soloist and conductor to appear with the Utah Symphony on February 12, but once Perlman was contracted, the Utah Symphony handled all presentation decisions and logistics. Another example of Grant's programmatic influence is the performance to be given by "Billy Taylor and Friends" on February 10, whereby the program has been designed to help audience members define and understand "what jazz is."
Furthermore, it is important that Arts Festival staff negotiate agreements for all major venues throughout the Salt Lake City region. According to Grant, "ambush marketing" is often a problem at the Olympic Games, so it is critical to maintain oversight over all performance venues in order to protect issues pertaining to sponsorship.
The 2002 Arts Festival is completely funded through private sources. This fact is significant in light of what Grant refers to as the "Olympics baggage of commercialization and corporate sponsorships." The Festival is not beholden to corporate sponsors, as sponsors do not directly fund the Festival but rather provide broad sponsorship to the Games as a whole. It has thus been easier to tie in local talent and partnership agreements with local arts organizations, which has greatly influenced programming and marketing decisions.
Grant provided several interesting examples of the role media sponsorship has played in arts programming associated with the Olympic Games. The NBC television network paid $500 million to the Olympic Games for exclusive broadcasting rights, which includes cultural programming. As such, NBC had to formally approve the documentary film, called "Why the Cowboy Sings," that the national public television network (PBS) is preparing pertaining to the Arts Festival. As another example, with the expectation that 3.5 billion viewers around the world will be tuned in to the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, this performance is distinguished as a separate function with its own executive producer.
Raymond Grant began his position as artistic director in July 1998. He reports directly to both the Salt Lake Organizing Committee CEO and to the International Olympic Committees Commission on Culture. Although the artistic program must be approved by the IOC, the local committee is given wide latitude in its programmatic decisions. Grant points out the key benefit of this policy that, as a result, the Olympic movement is continually reinvigorated through each host citys Games.
Grant holds an undergraduate diploma in music education from the University of Kansas and a masters degree in arts administration from New York University. His prior employment experience includes serving as General Manager of the American Symphony Orchestra in New York City's Carnegie Hall, heading the performing arts program at New York Citys Tisch Center, and leading the Disney Institutes performing arts facilities and programming in Florida. He feels that coming from outside the Olympic community has helped to bring a fresh perspective to the 2002 Olympic Arts Festival.
The Political Climate and Current Challenges
The Olympics has long been recognized for its inherent capacity to allow for the breakdown of barriers. Grant states, however, that it is also imperative to remember that the Olympic Games are highly politicized. With its fragmented and decentralized cultural policy, the United States has encouraged complete local discretion of programming decisions. In contrast, host communities with cultural policies centralized at the national level may be much more controlling in their artistic programming. For example, Grant states that in preparing for 2004, Athens' cultural program appears to be highly influenced by the office of the cultural ministry. Similarly, he will be interested in seeing the outcomes of the Chinese governments cultural policy decisions as they pertain to Beijing's ability to host the Games in 2008.
With current global political tensions and the post-September 11 concerns in the United States, it is evident that security issues are of the highest priority for everyone associated with the Olympics. The impact of the current political climate has placed several challenges on the Arts Festivals administration. First, security concerns and increased insurance expense forced the cancellation of the highly anticipated Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. Second, although the Arts Festival would also like to provide entertainment and informative cultural experiences for the 3.500 athletes and officials from 80 countries, security in Olympic Village is intense and does not allow for ease in organizing cultural activities. Despite current challenges, however, Grant mentions that the political climate has "fortified peoples' interest in not being cowed."
To Learn More About Olympism as Sport + Art
With over 9,000 accredited media and 19,000 unaccredited media representatives from around the world visiting Salt Lake City, arts managers everywhere can look forward to a multitude of cultural information from the Utah region in the coming months. A good starting point for more information about the Arts Festival is the website: www.saltlake2002.com/sloc/cultural_olympiad
Grant suggests that arts administrators interested in learning more about the Olympics cultural programs visit the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, which houses an extensive archive of all Olympic arts festivals programs, budgets, and final reports. Moreover, with a 7-year planning cycle, local organization for future Olympic Games is already well underway in Athens (2004), Turin (2006), and Beijing (2008).
Raymond Grant
Raymond T. Grant has enjoyed a multi-faceted career in the arts, education, business, and cultural tourism. He now consults in programming and planning and writes on cultural policy issues.
Most recently, Grant served as Executive Director - Programming for Robert Redford's Sundance Village. As head of creative development, Grant reported directly to Robert Redford and led all programming, conferencing and retreats at Sundance and a wide-ranging commissioning and artist-in-residence program. During his tenure, programming at Sundance defined this vital community preserve of 6,000 acres and focused on the balance of art and nature with a specific call to fostering independent voice.
As Executive Director of Sundance, from 2003-2005, Grant oversaw all resort operations, as well, including lodging, mountain operations and outfitters, general store, spa, and three restaurants. Under Grants leadership, Sundance was awarded significant environmental, arts, restaurant, and resort, hotel, and ski area awards.
From 1998-2003, Grant served as Managing Director of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee of the Olympic Winter Games of 2002 (SLOC). He also held the post of Artistic Director of the 2002 Cultural Olympiad, the Olympic Arts Festival for the 2002 Games.
With over 60 signature events, the 2002 Olympic Arts Festival, an integral part of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, attracted more than 400,000 Utah residents and world visitors to its exhibitions, performances, community programs, and special events during the Olympic Winter Games of 2002.
During his professional career, Grant served in New York City as General Manager of the American Symphony Orchestra from 1985-1991 and as Director of the Tisch Center for the Arts of the 92nd Street Y from 1991-92. Grant is a native New Yorker.
He has produced major events in Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall and New York's Central Park.
From 1993-96, Grant headed the Performing Arts and Film programs of the Disney Institute, a division of the Walt Disney Company and a project of Walt Disney Imagineering. There, he directed a 365-day per year performance schedule featuring artists in the fields of music, theatre, dance, film and television, science and architecture. He also launched a major artist-in-residence program and facilitated the development of three multi-million dollar performance facilities. He also served as a programming consultant for Walt Disney Attractions, Inc.
Grant has a Bachelor of Music Education (BME) degree from the University of Kansas and a master's degree in Arts Administration from New York University, the terminal degree in the field.
He has served as a panel member for the National Endowment for the Arts and the State of Florida's Division of Cultural Affairs. He has lectured at Indiana University, The Hartt School of Music, Virginia Tech, and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, among others.
Grant makes Utah his home and lives in Salt Lake City with his wife Susan and their two sons, Kieran and Stephen.
Contact to Raymond Grant: raymondtgrant (at) comcast.net
In a recent telephone interview, Raymond Grant, artistic director of the Festival, shared some goals, challenges and opportunities associated with arts administration for the Olympics. This article summarizes Grants responses to interview questions from the perspective of valuable insight to be shared with professional arts managers throughout the world.
Olympic Ideals and the Arts
The Olympic games have always encouraged the arts to be an integral part of what is generally acknowledged as the pinnacle of global sports competition. In fact, the Delphi games started in 560 b.c. as a music competition: competition in sports was later added to the games. At the founding of the modern Olympic Games in 1896, Olympism was defined as "sport plus art."
"Cultural programs, as required elements of the modern Olympic Games are totally in keeping with the origins and history of the ancient festival where sculpture, poetry, music and political idealism were bound together with athletic competition and religious celebration," writes David Gilman Romano, a classical archaeologist from the University of Pennsylvania in his essay, Culture and Tradition: The Ancient Olympic Games.
According to Raymond Grant, the arts competed alongside sports in the Olympic Games from 1906 to 1948. Then, in the 1950s, a shift took place from competition to creation and presentation, as the responsibility for the arts moved to the host organizing committee for each Olympics. Nonetheless, the arts have remained an integral component of the Olympic Games as the cultural context of this social gathering continues to transcend the level of sports competition.
In 2002, the Olympic Arts Festival celebrates Utah and is heritage, embraces the West and its cultures and highlights the United States' contributions to the arts and humanities. The festivities that surround the sports competitions - the concerts, performances, exhibitions, awards and community events define and create a cultural legacy of the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games and Paralympic Winter Games.
Arts Management Goals for the 2002 Festival
As artistic director, Raymond Grant's major goals for the Arts Festival are twofold: (1) to bring new artistic works into existence; and (2) to cultivate an atmosphere in which artists can create. Grant does not see his role as that of an "artistic czar," but rather as that of a facilitator to allow the creative process to move forward. He aspires to provide a creative environment from which newly commissioned works may become valuable elements of future repertoire, performances, and exhibits. Rather than just showcasing the arts, Grant is focusing on both fostering artistic creativity and revealing the creative process.
In designing the program for the 2002 Arts Festival, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee was influenced in many of its planning decisions from insight gained from previous Olympic Games in Atlanta and Sydney. Grant notes that "experience sharing" is becoming increasingly formalized within the Olympic community. Early in the decision making process, it was determined that the Salt Lake Arts Festival not be an international arts festival representing all countries, but rather a festival to highlight America's contributions to the arts. Where Atlanta stretched out the festival over many years, and Sydney utilized an approach of exporting Australian artistic talent, the Salt Lake Committee decided to concentrate the festival from February 1 through March 16, when world visitors would actually be in Utah.
From extensive preliminary research, the Committee learned that, throughout the world, awareness and understanding of Salt Lake City and Utah is minimal. Moreover, a false identity of the American West has been created through diverse media images. Grant sees a crucial role for the arts and humanities associated with the 2002 Olympic Games to "debunk the myth of the West." While he concedes that it may be impossible to obliterate stereotypes of the American West, he hopes to cultivate a fuller understanding of the West and its cultural heritage, as well as the achievements of American artists including Native artists.
Driven by a clearly articulated vision statement and mission statement, a major goal of arts management in the context of the Olympics is to create a programmatic balance whereby the Festival will resonate among local residents as well as world visitors. Similar to prior Olympic arts festivals, Salt Lake City expects roughly 70% to75% of attendees to be local residents; in fact, already 73% of ticket sales have been to persons located within a 45 minute drive of the festival venues. A major impact of the arts festival is "local pride of authorship." Grant mentions that the arts are often taken for granted in Salt Lake City, and that the Olympics provide an ideal vehicle for increasing awareness and visibility of local arts organizations.
An interesting cultural programming decision has been to re-institute competition through two events. First, an ice sculpting competition will take place among 30 international teams; second, an Olympic command performance rodeo will take place between a Canadian and American team. Olympic cultural participation medals will be awarded.
The 2002 Olympic Arts Festival Administration
Overseeing a total project budget of approximately $35 million, the 2002 Olympic Arts Festival is run by a skeleton staff of five full-time arts administrators with the support of a valuable team of dedicated volunteers. In addition to Raymond Grant as artistic director, the arts administration team is comprised of a programming director, a talent coordinator who coordinates travel logistics, an attorney who handles the contracts and also serves as Grant's assistant, and a volunteer coordinator.
The professional arts administration team is able to manage this large-scale festival through innovative partnerships with local arts organizations. In these relationships, the Arts Festival staff have investigated artistic ideas, shared ideas for works of art, and promoted various world-renowned artists for programmatic decisions within the local arts partnerships. For example, Grant promoted Itzhak Perlman as a soloist and conductor to appear with the Utah Symphony on February 12, but once Perlman was contracted, the Utah Symphony handled all presentation decisions and logistics. Another example of Grant's programmatic influence is the performance to be given by "Billy Taylor and Friends" on February 10, whereby the program has been designed to help audience members define and understand "what jazz is."
Furthermore, it is important that Arts Festival staff negotiate agreements for all major venues throughout the Salt Lake City region. According to Grant, "ambush marketing" is often a problem at the Olympic Games, so it is critical to maintain oversight over all performance venues in order to protect issues pertaining to sponsorship.
The 2002 Arts Festival is completely funded through private sources. This fact is significant in light of what Grant refers to as the "Olympics baggage of commercialization and corporate sponsorships." The Festival is not beholden to corporate sponsors, as sponsors do not directly fund the Festival but rather provide broad sponsorship to the Games as a whole. It has thus been easier to tie in local talent and partnership agreements with local arts organizations, which has greatly influenced programming and marketing decisions.
Grant provided several interesting examples of the role media sponsorship has played in arts programming associated with the Olympic Games. The NBC television network paid $500 million to the Olympic Games for exclusive broadcasting rights, which includes cultural programming. As such, NBC had to formally approve the documentary film, called "Why the Cowboy Sings," that the national public television network (PBS) is preparing pertaining to the Arts Festival. As another example, with the expectation that 3.5 billion viewers around the world will be tuned in to the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, this performance is distinguished as a separate function with its own executive producer.
Raymond Grant began his position as artistic director in July 1998. He reports directly to both the Salt Lake Organizing Committee CEO and to the International Olympic Committees Commission on Culture. Although the artistic program must be approved by the IOC, the local committee is given wide latitude in its programmatic decisions. Grant points out the key benefit of this policy that, as a result, the Olympic movement is continually reinvigorated through each host citys Games.
Grant holds an undergraduate diploma in music education from the University of Kansas and a masters degree in arts administration from New York University. His prior employment experience includes serving as General Manager of the American Symphony Orchestra in New York City's Carnegie Hall, heading the performing arts program at New York Citys Tisch Center, and leading the Disney Institutes performing arts facilities and programming in Florida. He feels that coming from outside the Olympic community has helped to bring a fresh perspective to the 2002 Olympic Arts Festival.
The Political Climate and Current Challenges
The Olympics has long been recognized for its inherent capacity to allow for the breakdown of barriers. Grant states, however, that it is also imperative to remember that the Olympic Games are highly politicized. With its fragmented and decentralized cultural policy, the United States has encouraged complete local discretion of programming decisions. In contrast, host communities with cultural policies centralized at the national level may be much more controlling in their artistic programming. For example, Grant states that in preparing for 2004, Athens' cultural program appears to be highly influenced by the office of the cultural ministry. Similarly, he will be interested in seeing the outcomes of the Chinese governments cultural policy decisions as they pertain to Beijing's ability to host the Games in 2008.
With current global political tensions and the post-September 11 concerns in the United States, it is evident that security issues are of the highest priority for everyone associated with the Olympics. The impact of the current political climate has placed several challenges on the Arts Festivals administration. First, security concerns and increased insurance expense forced the cancellation of the highly anticipated Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. Second, although the Arts Festival would also like to provide entertainment and informative cultural experiences for the 3.500 athletes and officials from 80 countries, security in Olympic Village is intense and does not allow for ease in organizing cultural activities. Despite current challenges, however, Grant mentions that the political climate has "fortified peoples' interest in not being cowed."
To Learn More About Olympism as Sport + Art
With over 9,000 accredited media and 19,000 unaccredited media representatives from around the world visiting Salt Lake City, arts managers everywhere can look forward to a multitude of cultural information from the Utah region in the coming months. A good starting point for more information about the Arts Festival is the website: www.saltlake2002.com/sloc/cultural_olympiad
Grant suggests that arts administrators interested in learning more about the Olympics cultural programs visit the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, which houses an extensive archive of all Olympic arts festivals programs, budgets, and final reports. Moreover, with a 7-year planning cycle, local organization for future Olympic Games is already well underway in Athens (2004), Turin (2006), and Beijing (2008).
Raymond Grant
Raymond T. Grant has enjoyed a multi-faceted career in the arts, education, business, and cultural tourism. He now consults in programming and planning and writes on cultural policy issues.
Most recently, Grant served as Executive Director - Programming for Robert Redford's Sundance Village. As head of creative development, Grant reported directly to Robert Redford and led all programming, conferencing and retreats at Sundance and a wide-ranging commissioning and artist-in-residence program. During his tenure, programming at Sundance defined this vital community preserve of 6,000 acres and focused on the balance of art and nature with a specific call to fostering independent voice.
As Executive Director of Sundance, from 2003-2005, Grant oversaw all resort operations, as well, including lodging, mountain operations and outfitters, general store, spa, and three restaurants. Under Grants leadership, Sundance was awarded significant environmental, arts, restaurant, and resort, hotel, and ski area awards.
From 1998-2003, Grant served as Managing Director of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee of the Olympic Winter Games of 2002 (SLOC). He also held the post of Artistic Director of the 2002 Cultural Olympiad, the Olympic Arts Festival for the 2002 Games.
With over 60 signature events, the 2002 Olympic Arts Festival, an integral part of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, attracted more than 400,000 Utah residents and world visitors to its exhibitions, performances, community programs, and special events during the Olympic Winter Games of 2002.
During his professional career, Grant served in New York City as General Manager of the American Symphony Orchestra from 1985-1991 and as Director of the Tisch Center for the Arts of the 92nd Street Y from 1991-92. Grant is a native New Yorker.
He has produced major events in Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall and New York's Central Park.
From 1993-96, Grant headed the Performing Arts and Film programs of the Disney Institute, a division of the Walt Disney Company and a project of Walt Disney Imagineering. There, he directed a 365-day per year performance schedule featuring artists in the fields of music, theatre, dance, film and television, science and architecture. He also launched a major artist-in-residence program and facilitated the development of three multi-million dollar performance facilities. He also served as a programming consultant for Walt Disney Attractions, Inc.
Grant has a Bachelor of Music Education (BME) degree from the University of Kansas and a master's degree in Arts Administration from New York University, the terminal degree in the field.
He has served as a panel member for the National Endowment for the Arts and the State of Florida's Division of Cultural Affairs. He has lectured at Indiana University, The Hartt School of Music, Virginia Tech, and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, among others.
Grant makes Utah his home and lives in Salt Lake City with his wife Susan and their two sons, Kieran and Stephen.
Contact to Raymond Grant: raymondtgrant (at) comcast.net
An article by Patricia Dewey, Correspondent, Eugene OR, USA
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