The Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games features 17 sport across 11 days of competition, but it’s a whole lot more than that: it’ll also coincide with one of the largest cultural programmes ever seen in Scotland.
Game On Scotland already features some of the largest projects, such as Big Big Sing and Get Scotland Dancing, but today a further 42 projects were announced as part of the programme and there’s a great mix of activity which will appeal to all ages. The new announcements include more than 800 children from across Scotland taking part in two family classical music concerts, films inspired by true stories of journeys of Shetlanders on ships made on the Clyde, and new light being shed on some of Glasgow’s forgotten architectural gems.
The newly announced projects join an unprecedented nationwide programme of activity featuring new work created by world-leading and emerging Scottish and international artists in response to the country’s hosting of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and our relationship with the Commonwealth.
Aiming to enhance the Games experience for Scotland’s communities, spectators and visitors as well as presenting the best of Scotland’s culture alongside that of the Commonwealth, the Cultural Programme includes almost 200 projects and exhibitions and over 800 events involving thousands of artists, performers and participants, across hundreds of locations and venues the length and breadth of Scotland.
Covering theatre, dance, music, visual arts, comedy and digital media; small scale indoor shows and outdoor spectaculars; work on bicycles and by rivers; in theatres, community centres, botanic gardens, art galleries, cinemas, public spaces and much more, audiences can expect everything from the intimate to the epic, the intense and life-affirming. Stories will be told of individual lives and communities, special places and moments in time.
Some relevant highlights of the programme are noted below, but you can find information on all projects (and search listings where dates are confirmed) at www.glasgow2014.com/culture.
Programme Highlights:
The Spokesman
Performed in parks across Scotland, this outdoor theatre production by Visible Fictions has the cast and audience travelling through the story on bikes.
Blue Block Studio
The Blue Block Studio pop-up space provides creative play for babies under 24 months and their adults, plus a storytelling performance for 2–4 year olds.
Glasgow Girls
Based on a true story, this National Theatre of Scotland production is a lively musical play, following a group of seven teenage girls who unite to campaign for their asylum seeker friend, when she and her family face the threat of deportation.
Scale
Scottish Dance Theatre is bringing the city of Dundee to life with projections of giant toddlers, a pop-up park, and other groundbreaking collaborations between internationally renowned artists. Every type of public space will become a playful site of city-wide dance.
Aye Write
The Aye Write! programme comprises a wide range of ticketed author events for adults and children, but also extends to a schools festival, and a variety of free community and family events.
