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City of dreams : social engagement and aesthetic creation in the cultural olympiad
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Wilson, James A. (James Andrew) (2013) City of dreams : social engagement and aesthetic creation in the cultural olympiad. Contemporary Theatre Review, Volume 23 (Number 4). pp. 542-552. doi:10.1080/10486801.2013.839182
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10486801.2013.839182
Abstract
Freedom Studios’s Cultural Olympiad performance The Mill – City of Dreams, created in a disused textile mill in Bradford, engaged deeply with its local constituency. However, the artists at the head of the project were reluctant to consider their project ‘socially engaged’. This semantic discomfort reveals a tension at the heart of the project: just what social role did the artists expect this performance to play in the life of the city? Or was this ‘just’ art? These questions cut to the heart of the Cultural Olympiad, which asks art to be both ‘great’ and to make ‘a sustained difference to the community’. The Olympiad might be one manifestation of the increasing interest in conceiving of the aesthetic and social dimensions of performance together, as theorised by Shannon Jackson and James Thompson, for example. The Mill – City of Dreams, a successful and well-received performance, nonetheless shows above all the practical difficulty of this precarious reconciliation.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN2000 Dramatic representation. The Theater | ||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies | ||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Performance art -- Great Britain -- Bradford, Performing arts festivals -- Great Britain -- Bradford, Theater and society, Olympic Games (30th : 2012 : London, England) -- Social aspects | ||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Contemporary Theatre Review | ||||
| Publisher: | Routledge | ||||
| ISSN: | 1048-6801 | ||||
| Official Date: | 2013 | ||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | Volume 23 | ||||
| Number: | Number 4 | ||||
| Page Range: | pp. 542-552 | ||||
| DOI: | 10.1080/10486801.2013.839182 | ||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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