Hope and Creative Expression in Celebration of Vancouver's 2010 Winter Olympics: The Cultural Olympiad

While some people are using the 2010 Olympics as an opportunity to vent their anger against seal hunting, social housing, and other societal problems, some people see the event as a chance to share their creative vision to the world. On Granville Mall between Robson and Georgia streets, Canadian and Taiwanese schoolchildren have decorated 40 steel trees with 2,010 lanterns. Each lantern is carefully and individually drawn and coloured. This lantern forest is set up as part of the Cultural Olympiad's Lunarfest. Today, pedestrians and visitors could not help but to stop and admire the beautiful creations done by the children, as the artistic and cultural dialogue between the two cultures speak of friendship, hope, and possibilities. Some onlookers took out their cameras and cell phones to snap the extraordinary artworks.

Other sculptures can be seen downtown, such as the Cultural Olympiad athletic sculptures, where the young and old crowd around to have their pictures taken. Even Vancouver's Public Dreams Society has partnered with the National Taiwan Craft Research Institute to decorate the downtown area. Examples of pieces displayed are Bruce Voyce's Confucian Fusion, Tony Ong's Interflow, and Chen Shu-Yen's Dancing with You - Across the Pacific Ocean.

The Cultural Olympiad programming is one of the many positives that is coming out of the 2010 Olympics. From January 22nd to March 21st, Vancouver will be hosting a series of three multi-disciplinary festivals. A medley of dance, theater, music, visual arts, film, outdoor spectaculars, and digital media experiences is planned to express the contemporary artistic voice of Canada. It is wonderful that even artists, young and old, can have their own Olympic dream.

Sources:

http://www.vancouver2010.com/more-2010-information/cultural-festivals-and-events/about-cultural-olympiad/

http://www.lunarfest.org/about