Legacy Trust UK will be awarding a major grant to Thames Arts, a collaborative arts organisation set up to programme and promote a series of events along the River Thames as part of the Cultural Olympiad (cultural celebrations of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games) in 2012.

‘The Tree of Light’ has been selected to be one of only four ‘Community Celebrations’ by Legacy Trust UK, an independent charity set up to create a cultural and sporting legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Two of the events will be in England with one in both Scotland and Northern Ireland and each will receive £750,000 to towards their respective projects.

Five spectacular events will take place in the Thames region giving more than one thousand participants from Oxford, Reading, Henley, Windsor and Slough the chance to take part in all the excitement of 2012. The centre piece of the project will be a giant sculpted Tree of Light lit by low energy LED light and powered by sustainable energy largely generated by cyclists and rowers from each local community.

The year long project will not only celebrate the Olympic movement but will also highlight the need to live and work with sustainability and the natural environment and culminate in a major weekend celebration prior to the games. There will also be a strong educational aspect of the programme with schools and community groups from across the region working with environmental scientists and professionals from the worlds of visual arts, music and dance to create a huge performance piece.

Sally Abbott, Regional Director, South East, Arts Council England, said:
‘We are delighted to support this consortium of strong cultural arts organisations through our Grants for the arts scheme and their environmentally focused project which is inspired by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralmypic Games. We hope that thousands of people living in the Thames region will take part in this magical celebration that brilliantly brings science, art and sport together under one banner.’

Dugald Mackie, Chair of Legacy Trust UK said: “The Tree of Light will help spread the magic and excitement of the 2012 Games outside London and leave a lasting legacy across the South East of England. The Games aren’t just for two weeks, and they’re not just for sports fans.  Through projects such as this, they will have an enduring impact on many people’s lives.”

The creative team for the project include the innovative high tech theatrical design duo Block 9 who have become a regular fixture at Glastonbury Festival, leading Composer Orlando Gough who is one of the UK’s most highly rated composers for ballet, contemporary dance and theatre and Choreographer Charlie Morrissey whose achievements include production elements for the opening of the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002.

Stewart Collins, Artistic Director of Henley Festival and the inspiration behind the Tree of Light project said “This is an utterly brilliant piece of news. From the word go we felt we had a wonderful and unique project but having now been given the thumbs up we can confidently look forward to producing a spectacle that will have an impact on many levels right across the Thames Valley – not to mention London itself. The creative team we’ve assembled is strong in every department and I think the project will have a real impact – and legacy.”

The Thames Arts Consortium is made up of the following partners: CIAO! Festival, Henley Festival, Oxford Inspires and Windsor Festival. The Tree of Light is supported with £200,000 in Arts Council England Grants for the arts funding, their open access funding scheme. The project is also strongly supported by local authorities and bodies across the Thames region.