An international arts competition that will take place in Montreal in 2018 will be announced at the Rio Olympics this August. Although the ArtsGames will not be part of the Olympics, they are inspired by them.
Up until 1948, the world’s best artists were awarded Olympic medals along with the athletes. The practice was stopped because artists were paid and that was thought to be contrary to goal of holding amateur games. But in the 1990s things changed and athletes where were remunerated and were allowed to compete at the Olympics. That’s when Canadians began to lobby for the inclusion of arts competition.
Competition in 5 disciplines
They did not succeed in having the arts included in the Olympics and decided to go ahead with an international competition on their own but with the “tolerance and enthusiasm” of the Olympics.
There will be five disciplines: dance, music, visual arts, media arts and literature. There will be dance and music performance competitions and panels are discussing how to structure competition in the other arts. Country federations in each discipline will be consulted and people can apply to compete online.
“We’ll be running online competitions for about six months leading to the auditions,” said Peter Howlett, chairman and CEO of the International ArtsGames Committee. “The online competitions will be sure to democratize the access.”
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