Why art and sport.

As a recent Arts Olympiad participant, Chanjuan Ma (12)from New Jersey explained her entry as an inspiration to others to spend more time playing sports rather than sitting indoors watching television. Most likely, Chanjuan does not know she shares a similar belief with many artists who have worked throughout the twentieth-century.

Beginning in the early 1900s, avant-garde (a French term meaning art that questions what is accepted in society) movements rejected the idea of being passive and inactive, especially when it came to viewing art. Just like the goals of Chanjuan, avant-garde artists did not want the viewer to turn off their brain like a couch potato. Instead, they wanted to engage them and inspire individual responses.

By combining art and sport for the third Arts Olympiad, the idea of passively viewing and making art has been transformed. Art is no longer separate from the everyday, nor is creativity disconnected from such common activities as sports. Roles such as artist or athlete are no longer limited to what is commonly accepted. Cultivating the imagination is dependent on the freedom of questioning and the redefining of what is and what could be.

"Art and sport have the power to change the world, the power to inspire, the power to unite people in a way that little else can. Art and sport speak to people in a language they understand. Art and sport can create hope where there was once only despair. They are instruments for peace, even more powerful than governments."

--Nobel Laureate Nelson R. Mandela

On the Road to the 2007 World Children's Festival:

The distribution and completion of Arts Olympiad lesson plans distributed to schools worldwide has passed, but each participating country has it's own story to tell, as does each child artist.

Implementing programs in nearly 100 countries is no small task, but thanks in part to the ICAF partner organizations, the positive influence of the Arts Olympiad was able to reach even the most unexpected places. By using the universality of sport, this creative program asked participants to look at its message and values that provide the foundations for Olympic ideals. With the intent on balancing the development of the mind, body and character of children, the Arts Olympiad translates into any language the global need for tolerance, friendship and creative problem solving.

The Arts Olympiad allows the celebration of different cultures--for each participating country has it's own identity and interpretation unique to its customs, ultimately influencing how each child approached the theme "My Favorite Sport". However, the did not separate countries or children from each other. The simple task of picking up a pencil or paintbrush, no matter where, connected the imaginations of children in identifying a shared vision of coexistence.

In June 2007, the world's children will gather in Washington, DC for the World Children's Festival to live and experience the reality of the connections they imagined onto paper. Finding the empowerment to become leaders, the festival will lay the foundation for cultivating and inspiring the creative potential and tolerant minds of the world's next generation.

Key Term Avant-Garde: any creative group active in the innovation and application of new concepts and techniques in the arts.