2012 - a year of Truce?

We are hugely excited that Arts Council England has confirmed Grants for the Arts funding for our ‘Truce’ project, starting in February 2012.

A New Direction first began to develop ideas around the concept of the Olympic Truce in August 2011, when a small group of young people involved in our Headstart programme interviewed Lord Bates, as part of his walk from Mount Olympus to London to promote the tradition of the Olympic Truce. Another group visited the Olympic Museum in Lausanne in October 2011 to research how truce is an integral part of the contemporary Olympiad.

(Image: young people from our Headstart programme meet Lord Bates in August 2011.)

A truce was established in ancient Greece as part of the ancient Olympics Games to enable people to travel safely to participate in or attend the event. The concept was revived in 1992 to encourage the search for peaceful solutions to conflicts around the world. A year before each Games, the United Nations unanimously adopts a resolution which invites member states to observe the Olympic Truce. For the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games all participating nations have signed up to the concept of Truce.

Our programme is focussed on exploring and sharing the idea of the Olympic Truce with young people across London. We want to get people thinking about the importance of reconciliation and amnesty in our lives – in a small ways, like not letting arguments fester, or in big ways like believing that world peace is possible. We want to bring a meaningful understanding of the theme of Truce to London in 2012 and find ways of sharing this through the Olympics and beyond to other cities and communities.

Our Truce project involves three sets of artists working in partnership with different groups of young people through 2012. The artists are Grennan & Sperandio who will be working with film stills and posting ‘Truce’ videos online, Janette Parris who will be developing digital animations, and SODA who will devise an interactive web space to host and develop the work.

A New Direction is working with Sarah Wang from the Creative Intelligence Agency to develop and coordinate the project which will have a presence across Live Sites, Bus Stops and other outdoor platforms during 2012 as well as sparking collaboration with Glasgow and Londonderry-Derry beyond the Olympic year.

If you would like to hear more about our Truce activity please send us an email