2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games

Gateway to the Games

Playing our part: Culture

Barking and Dagenham has a long and distinguished heritage, excellent and well-used parks, a growing number of well-designed public buildings, and a growing national reputation for public and community art. These will form the basis of a local cultural programme that will promote the Olympics to Barking and Dagenham, and promote Barking and Dagenham to the thousands of people who come to London for the Olympics
Barking Town Centre is being developed as a centre for creative and cultural industries. As well as The Broadway Centre for Performing Arts, we are developing facilities for music, arts and crafts along the River Roding. We are also developing plans for an exciting 'Arts Factory' in South Dagenham
Dagenham Park Community School is a Performing Arts Specialist College with links to the Royal Ballet, and students from the school appear in the latest Harry Potter film
A13 Artscape is one of the largest and most ambitious public-arts projects in Britain. It has improved the environment of the A13 in Barking and Dagenham by introducing designed landscapes and landmark features designed by artists
We have 31 listed buildings, including Valence House Museum. The museum has a fantastic collection of local historic artefacts and paintings. Eastbury Manor House, a Grade I listed Tudor building dating from the mid-16th century, is now used as an arts and heritage venue. It staged Her Majesty the Queen's visit to the borough in her Golden Jubilee year and would be an ideal conference centre for any games-related business
The borough has links with a number of famous people, including the explorer Captain James Cook (who was married in Barking) and prison reformer Elizabeth Fry (who was buried in Barking). From the world of entertainment, Dudley Moore and Sandie Shaw were both born in the borough and from sport, the 1966 Football World Cup winners Bobby Moore and Sir Alf Ramsey, and Rugby World Cup winner Jason Leonard were also born in Barking and Dagenham
Our parks and green spaces give residents and visitors the opportunity to enjoy a wide range of activities. These range from sport to environmental activities at a variety of venues, including the award-winning Millennium Centre, the peaceful local nature reserve at Eastbrookend Country Park and the Beam Valley, and the historic landscapes of Valence Park and Barking Park|
Our parks host a number of community events, including the Dagenham Town Show which is the largest free 2-day entertainment event in the south-east, attracting audiences of between 60,000 and 100,000 people
The Town Show is an ideal event to promote the London 2012 Olympics. Also, the fantastic free open-air classical concert in the ruins of Barking Abbey, which is a 1 day event, and the East London Mela, a 1 day event in Barking Park attracting audiences of 20,000 people, will also be an important part of our contribution to the 4 year cultural festival leading up to the 2012 Games
Building on the success of highly-praised schemes like the Molten Festival, we will design our cultural programme to encourage understanding of and connections between different communities in the borough, especially those that will be looking to take part in the Games. It will celebrate, in a variety of ways, the differences in cultures. It will also offer a learning experience that will continue long after 2012
We will work with community groups to encourage and help them to become involved in both the world cultural festival and the world festival of youth culture. We will aim to have at least one group from Barking and Dagenham involved in the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2012 Games

Contact

Lynn Knowles

Events, Play, Tourism and Olympics

4th Floor

Maritime House

1 Linton Road

Barking

IG11 8HG

Tel: 020 8227 2012

Fax: 020 8227 3129

Textphone: 020 8227 3034

Email: lynn.knowles@lbbd.gov.uk|