With so much attention on what might be going wrong with the build up to the World Cup in South Africa (and there have been legitimate concerns), we would like to devote some time and energy to some of the things that are being done right.
The 2010 Fine Art project, created by Managing Director, Craig Mark, combines art and football into two powerful projects, the 2010 African Fine Art Collection and the 2010 International Fine Art Collection. The 2010 African Fine Art Collection is positioned to use the World Cup as a way to introduce the world to African art, and more specifically to provide artists from Africa with a global platform to exhibit, market, and sell their works to international clients that were previously difficult to reach. The 2010 African Fine Art Collection includes everything from sculptures, to painting, to photography, and “embodies the true diversity of African beauty and directly mirrors the joy and grace of football itself.” According to the project, the African Fine Art Collection “will further bolster one of the primary goals of the African Legacy Programme of the FIFA World Cup: to improve Africa’s global image and to combat Afro-pessimism – through the medium of fine art.”
However, the 2010 Fine Art project doesn’t end with African art. The project is also projecting the “positive energy and Afro-enthusiasm” internationally through the 2010 International Fine Art Collection. The International Fine Art Collection brings together leading contemporary artists from around the world to create works inspired by the 2010 World Cup. The collection draws five leading contemporary artists from each of the 32 countries that qualified for the 2010 World Cup to to interpret the same theme, drawing inspiration from Africa, the World Cup, and their country’s own national pride, in the style of their choice.
The 2010 Fine Art project is one of the many examples of people using the World Cup to connect football with other creative outlets, and to increase cultural awareness.
Check out some of the art at http://www.2010fineart.com/. There’s some fantastic work.
