Here’s a coincidence: just when public support for Chicago’s 2016 Olympics bid is tanking (according to a recent Trib/WGN poll), along comes Back the Bid Day to perk things up. September 13 is the designated date for this show of orchestrated enthusiasm by some of the city’s elite cultural institutions. On that day only, tickets for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s regular concerts will go for just $20.16 each, as will seats on the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s “2016 Highlights by Bus” tour, which will cruise past potential Olympic sites. And the same amount will buy any Chicago resident admission to the Art Institute with an audio guide thrown in—a $1.84 savings. (What a deal.)
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The other part is traceable to a conference held at the University of Chicago in June 2008. Under the sponsorship of the university and the auspices of the Chicago Consortium on Olympic Studies, which he heads, U. of C. professor and Olympic historian John MacAloon hosted a symposium on the history of the arts in the Olympics for 130 Chicago cultural leaders. Speakers included academics and officials from previous games, and MacAloon says it was an “eye-opener” for a lot of people who didn’t know “what the Cultural Olympiad is or even that it exists.”
In fact, the arts aspect of the games is required by the IOC and has a long history, starting with the orators and poets who were part of the ancient original festival. French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin (subject of a biography by MacAloon), who founded the modern Olympics in the late 19th century, meant them to celebrate the cultivation of mind as well as body, supplanting war by bringing nations together for peaceful competition in both areas. Beginning with the games of 1912 and continuing through 1948, artists actually went for the gold: medals were awarded in architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture.
That might be why Chicago’s planning to hold most of its major arts events before, rather than during, the games. But the plan for festivals starting four years out runs counter to the advice of Jeffrey Babcock, who headed the Cultural Olympiad for Atlanta in 1996, the last time the summer games were held in the States. “It doesn’t make sense to do a huge amount of cultural programming before the games because the visitors you’re trying to connect with aren’t there,” he says, adding that he found the four-year program a “significant distraction” and a financial drain. “Really what you want to do is hit it out of the park during the summer of the games.”
