Latest news with #arts
Forbes
17 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
What To Expect When Olympia, London's Cultural Landmark, Opens In 2025
The reimagined Olympia London is being co-designed by Heatherwick Studio and SPPARC Everyday there's a new story on how AI isn't just disrupting the creative industry but decimating it. There are those, however, who firmly believe in the power of human creativity and want to champion it. One of them is Lloyd Lee, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Yoo Capital, the firm behind the redevelopment of Olympia London. For the uninitiated, Olympia is a landmark exhibition and events center in West London that at its peak hosted 200 events a year. Established in 1886, it was the setting for the first Ideal Home Show in 1908, welcomed performances by Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd in 1967 and served as the venue for Vivienne Westwood's first-ever fashion runway show in 1981. It has witnessed many historic creative moments and aims to be a 'world-leading arts, events, entertainment and experiential district' upon completion. Currently under a £1.3 billion redevelopment, the new and improved Olympia still has creativity at its heart. Its mission is even more important at a time when the arts, entertainment and cultural sectors are suffering major setbacks. When Olympia reopens at the end of 2025, it will unveil London's first new theater in 50 years, a 4,000-capacity live music venue, over 30 different hospitality spaces and more—a tangible win for creatives far and wide. 'We absolutely believe that Olympia's primary grain of DNA is showcase. It is, has been and always will be a global showcase for talent, culture, entertainment, innovation, technology and everything in between. The key is that we believe Olympia is and will be redefining what a global showcase is and can be,' says Lee. A new socioeconomic report by consultancy firm Volterra says 'Olympia will generate over £600 million in GVA annually—its new music hall and theater alone will contribute £18 million annually to London's cultural sector.' They estimate that this will draw 10 million annual visitors to the UK capital, and also contribute over £640 million to destinations outside London. Lloyd Lee, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Yoo Capital Curious to learn more about the next chapter of the Olympia story? We speak to Lee for a behind-the-scenes look at the second life of this historic cultural venue. How did you first come across the opportunity to redevelop Olympia? We've always had a very strong vision of what we're trying to achieve, but we are also incredibly research-based, and these two things inform how and why we invest. Back in 2015 when the first rumblings of Brexit appeared, we read volumes of data to inform our decision-making process. Our conclusion was to invest into real estate with a strong operational mindset. We began looking for projects where we could control and create the best environment for people to work, learn, live and play, in an international capital like London. We also knew that Brexit would cause turbulence that would provide us with the opportunity to buy assets when few others would. In the summer of 2016, we shook hands with the former owners of Olympia, with the support of investors, and completed a deal that released a non-core asset from their portfolio. This allowed us to acquire this historic landmark that needed to be rejuvenated and required significant reinvestment. As with so many of our deals, it started with a Friday breakfast meeting, which is when the idea popped up. The following day, we headed to Olympia and saw 14-acres of freehold land with the remarkable grand Victorian halls. We sent the offer letter three weeks later. London is home to a trove of high-value redevelopment projects that feature adaptive reuse, conservation and preservation. What sets Olympia apart? Co-authorship. We believe our role is to lead with a dynamic vision, working in true co-authorship with some of the most talented names in their respective sectors. At Olympia, we are blessed to have fantastic partners in theater, live music entertainment, restaurants, hotels, events and exhibitions, and education. Even in our office spaces, we see ourselves as partners with our office tenants and we want Olympia to support their success. When people come to work in our spaces at Olympia, we want them to be inspired to do their very best work, and so our pledge to our partners is that we'll ensure their people love coming to work. We joke that whether they like their job or not is up to them! Circa 1926: Signs advertising the Royal Tournament show outside Olympia Exhibition Hall at Olympia, London. (Photo by General) Olympia is etched in history. Why is it important for a city like London to ensure a destination like Olympia lives on? Our public spaces will be programmed by some of the most inventive and creative teams in experiential streetscapes. Everywhere you look, we want visitors to see and experience new ideas, art, music and innovation. All showcased by someone who has come to Olympia to tell the world who they are and what they do. And we don't just want this story to be told at Olympia, but also through Olympia. We're looking for our destination to amplify all the fantastic things to see and do here through our own channels. London has a 2,000-year history and yet it remains one of the most exciting cities in the world. This is because it never stops moving, it always reinvents itself, and part of this is ensuring that its historical assets keep adapting to the times we live in. Olympia was cutting-edge when it opened almost 140 years ago, and it will now be ready for the next generations to enjoy. How did you and your team choose the partners and the players that will bring Olympia to life? We chose partners who combined a real fire for excellence and a distinctive identity, with a desire to contribute to Olympia's story, to truly be part of it so we could tell a new chapter together. It is this combination of excellence, originality and commitment that has been a theme across Olympia throughout its history, and we believe that our partners are true to that heritage. All of them are the very best in their fields: The project is being co-designed by Heatherwick Studio and SPPARC—both global architecture practices who have worked on projects such as Borough Yards and Google's new London HQ. Olympia will unveil London's first new theater in 50 years, a 4,000-capacity live music venue, over 30 different restaurants, plus a collection of offices, schools and more On the entertainment side, AEG Presents will be operating the new 4,000-capacity music venue, while Trafalgar Entertainment will run the theater, which is the largest to be built in London in nearly half a century. On the hospitality front, citizenM and Hyatt will be operating our two hotels, while Incipio and D3 Collective—two very well established UK hospitality companies—will be behind a number of restaurant and bar concepts. Our boutique gym will be managed by 1Rebel, and our school by Wetherby Pembridge, while our event spaces will carry on being run by the Olympia Events team, now part of Legends, who have looked after these fantastic spaces for many years. Finally, we are also very proud to support The BRIT School through a bursary program, as well as numerous other good causes via our partnership with EARNT and our charitable fund. What all of these people and organizations have in common is the desire to create something truly unique together. There won't be two places like Olympia. Why do you think it's important to invest in cultural initiatives at this day and age when many get their entertainment online? If there is one stream of important data we studied, it was the proliferation of digital entertainment. We formed a contracyclical thesis that live moments and in-person experiences—exactly those you cannot get on digital media—would have to up their game. We knew that when they did, people would crave going out, being with other people, experiencing something that is only possible there and then, in the moment. Reflecting now, five years since Covid began, we have seen those exact dynamics play out. We are continuing to invest into those areas because we believe that the performing arts and live entertainment are hugely important to the human experience. We see Olympia as a microcosm of London, and it's London's culture and entertainment offering that makes it such a great place to live, work and visit. But despite this, the UK's creative industries continue to face significant challenges, including the closure of key cultural institutions and a decline in the nighttime economy. Our ambition for Olympia is to be a catalyst—not just the cultural industries but the tourism sector as well. Olympia aims to be "a global showcase for talent, culture, entertainment, innovation, technology and everything in between" How would you personally measure the success of Olympia? We believed in this project from the very beginning and the new findings by Volterra—over £600 million in gross value added and 7,000 new jobs—confirm what we always knew: Olympia has an unmatched potential. Yoo Capital's mission is to be both fiscally and socially responsible. For Olympia, this means re-emerging as this global showcase for culture, innovation, art and entertainment. It will look after and inspire the next generations of young talent because that too is what global showcases should do. As the largest commercial neighbor in the community, we need to lead the way as responsible corporate citizens in how we engage with local residents, schools and nonprofits. We need to be open and transparent in our communications and interactions; we also need to generate returns to our investors so that they see the true risk-reward benefit of investing this way and continue to invest more this way going forward, creating a positive cycle. Describe the ideal scene you'd like to see on an ordinary day in Olympia when it opens. What I envision as an ordinary day at Olympia would be a day that brings all these things together: a cutting-edge business conference drawing leading minds from all over the world, a local family sharing a meal in one of our restaurants, some of our office employees enjoying drinks after work, a group of friends from abroad checking in at one of our hotels and getting ready to head to the theater, a young musician busking on Olympia Way. It's the whole of London, in one place. Lastly, what kind of events would you love Olympia to host in the near future? The Oscars! I hear their 100th anniversary is coming up.
The Guardian
20 hours ago
- General
- The Guardian
Parks, libraries, museums: here's why Trump is attacking America's best-loved institutions
The author and environmentalist Wallace Stegner called our national parks 'America's best idea'. Certainly, these jewels – 85m acres of parkland throughout all the 50 states – are beloved by the public. So are America's public libraries, arts organizations and museums. But that hasn't stopped the Trump administration from threatening or harming them. These institutions are under siege. They are hurt by deep funding cuts, the loss or bullying of public employees and, in some cases, by threats of extinction. Why would any politician – especially one as hungry for adulation as Donald Trump – go after such cherished parts of America? It seems counterintuitive, but this is all a part of a broad plan that the great 20th century political thinker Hannah Arendt would have understood all too well. Take away natural beauty, free access to books and support for the arts, and you end up with a less enlightened, more ignorant and less engaged public. That's a public much more easily manipulated. 'A people that can no longer believe in anything cannot make up its mind,' said Arendt, a student of authoritarianism, in 1973. Eventually, such a public 'is deprived … of its ability to think and judge', and with people like that, 'you can then do what you please'. That's what Trump and company are counting on. It's also part of the effort to divide Americans into two tribes – the elites and the regular folks, the blue and the red, the drivers of dorky hybrid sedans and the drivers of oversized pick-up trucks. The arts and nature, by contrast, serve to unite us. When you're admiring a redwood or gazing at the Grand Canyon, you're neither Republican nor Democrat. The same goes for listening to a beautiful piece of new music or choosing library books to read with your children. But division and grievance serve Trump better. And so, we have the attacks on marginalized people, on university research, and the performing arts, often in the guise of eliminating waste or discriminatory hiring practices. 'The Trump administration has launched a comprehensive attack on knowledge itself, a war against culture, history and science,' Adam Serwer wrote in the Atlantic recently in a much-discussed piece describing 'the attack on knowledge', putting in broad context Trump's defunding of universities and attempts to discourage international scholarship. What's really going on is a longterm power grab. In crippling learning, beauty and culture Trump and his helpers 'seek to make the country more amenable to their political domination'. When it comes to the parks, as the Guardian's Annette McGivney reported recently, the harm is well under way. Thousands of staffing cuts mean that many parks lack adequate supervision, that campgrounds are closed and that the care of precious natural resources is neglected. Again, it's by design, as the former national parks director Jonathan Jarvis told McGivney. 'There are ideologues who want to dismantle the federal government,' Jarvis said. 'And the last thing they need is a highly popular federal agency that undermines their argument about how the government is dysfunctional.' Mark Nebel, a longtime manager of a program at the Grand Canyon, and a true believer in the value of national parks, spoke about the personal toll. 'The Trump administration says this is all about efficiency, but it is nothing of the sort,' said Nebel, who became demoralized at the harm being done and abruptly resigned. Reducing government waste may sound good but it looks more like willful destruction. Among the many agencies that are under attack are the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. These organizations provide crucial support for public libraries and museums, grants to artists and writers, and much more. They make us better as a people. They uplift us. Like the parks, they can bring beauty into our lives. And as the poet John Keats wrote, beauty and truth are inseparable. But truth is only trouble for the would-be autocrat. And truth itself is under attack, as Trump – a prolific liar – tries to control the message to the public by controlling the reality-based press. That's how successful propaganda works. Toward that end, his administration is trying to defund public media, including NPR and PBS, and – partly through lawsuits against media organizations including CBS News and ABC News – to intimidate journalists and their corporate bosses. A more ignorant, less enlightened, more divided electorate is far easier to manipulate. And the power grab, after all, is the larger aim. Once that power is fully secured, there is no one left to challenge the endless grift and self-dealing that is a hallmark of this administration – the sale of meme coins, the pay-to-play pardons of criminals and the cultivation of rich guys and their fat wallets. The diminishment of truth and beauty is part of a long game, but one that doesn't have to prevail. Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture
BBC News
21 hours ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Novello Picture House: Theatre saved with charity purchase
Campaigners working to save a run-down theatre from demolition are celebrating success after its sale to a charitable Theatre in Sunninghill, Berkshire, has been bought by the Sunninghill Trust, which will also fund the building's 100-year-old former cinema will be linked to neighbouring Cordes Hall, with Cordes Hall Charity running both venues "as one vibrant arts hub".Campaign coordinator Alan Everett described the development as "a fantastic outcome for local performers and residents". The historical building was owned by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead which, last year, gave campaign group Save Novello Picture House the opportunity to buy it before it was offered on the open purchase, which completed on Friday, will see the Sunninghill Trust "bring the building up to modern standards" and make it "available to the local community through an affordable lease" to the Cordes Hall raised by the campaign group will pay for the internal theatre Everett said: "We are deeply grateful to the Sunninghill Trust for their generous support. "We look forward to continuing our partnership with the trust during the initial refurbishment phase and ultimately bringing this much-loved historical building back to life." The Sunninghill Trust was established in 1813 and provides allotments and grants to relieve hardship and help the community.A trust spokesperson said: "We are delighted to announce our significant support for this project by bringing an underutilised asset back into community use. "The theatre sits right in the heart of our support area."We look forward to working closely with the Cordes Hall Charity on this project." You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
CTV News
a day ago
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Student art exhibit part of Sudbury's St. Jean festivities
French arts students in Greater Sudbury are honoured as their work is displayed during St. Jean festivities in a joint exhibition from the local French school boards at Centre de santé communautaire. The exhibition features students from Grades 9-12 from five local high schools, with a larger showcase planned at Place des Arts later this month.
South China Morning Post
a day ago
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
How to skip the tourist traps at the Venice Biennale: where to stay and what to eat, drink and see – from cicchetti and natural wines to the ‘Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective' exhibition
As one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, Venice is, unsurprisingly, also one of the most polarising. Known in equal measure for its gorgeous, winding canals as for its expensive gondola rides, this is a city whose most compelling secrets are revealed only to those who actually take the time to research what's going on beneath its touristy surface. Tourists sail on a gondola along a canal in Venice. Photo: AFP Luckily, Venice also benefits from a vibrant arts and culture scene – one that's among the best in the world by modern standards. Historically, the city played a hugely influential role during the Italian Renaissance period and many relics of this legacy – from outstanding architecture to Murano glassware and Venetian paintings – still stand as major tourist draws today. And in 1895, the city played host to the very first Venice Biennale, now the oldest cultural exhibition of its kind in the world. Advertisement People visit the main exhibition, titled 'Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.' and curated by Italian architect-engineer Carlo Ratti, at the Corderie dell'Arsenale, on May 7. Photo: EPA-EFE The 19th edition of the Venice Biennale of Architecture – which opened on May 10 – runs until November 23 of this year. It's a prime moment for visitors seeking an alternative view of the city, focusing on its best arts and culture and eschewing the busy crowds of St Mark's Basilica and the Rialto Bridge. We're here to help you sift through what's really worth seeing, eating and drinking in this cultural capital of truly discreet – if not quite hidden – gems. Stay at Ca' di Dio Ca' di Dio is a charming, characterful hotel with views of the Venetian Lagoon. Photo: @cadidio_/Instagram An unassuming hotel occupying prime real estate just a 10-minute walk from St Mark's Square, Ca' di Dio boasts some of the best views on this side of the Venetian Lagoon from a discreet location along the popular Riva degli Schiavoni promenade. Don't be fooled by its relatively demure exteriors, however. This humble haven has plenty of character dating back to the 13th century. Spanish architect Patricia Urquiola brought much of this historic charm to life upon renovation, converting the former chapel into an impressive lobby that's equal parts expansive and intimate, with high ceilings, a healthy dose of natural light, and carefully curated artworks and coffee table books. The central courtyard provides much-needed respite from the heat of summer. This is an art lovers' hotel through and through, and the rooms feel somewhat like an art deco bohemian's paradise, contrary to the more stately and classical feel afforded by much of Venice's architecture. Red marble countertops in the bathroom and Murano lamps with a retro feel give the suites a truly lived-in atmosphere that you won't find at many of the city's more extravagant hotels. Accessible via private water taxi or the Arsenale ferry station, the hotel is the perfect home base from which to explore the Biennale, centrally located between its two most prominent venues, the Arsenale and the Giardini. Savour some cicchetti at Nevodi
