LA28 announced the Cultural Olympiad: Los Angeles wants to unite sport, art and city neighborhoods
The Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Los Angeles 2028 has presented the Cultural Olympiad program, a major cultural framework that will, during the preparations for the Games and in the Olympic summer of 2028, encompass fashion, film, food, music, performing arts and visual art. According to the LA28 announcement, the program is conceived as a city and regional initiative that should not merely be accompanying content for the sporting competition, but a way for Los Angeles to present itself through its own artists, institutions, communities and public spaces. The organizers emphasize that the cultural program will be built around existing creative scenes, from museums and major cultural institutions to neighborhood stages, local organizations and spaces in which music, film, dance, food, design and public art are created every day.
The announcement comes more than two years before the start of the Olympic Games, which, according to the official LA28 schedule, will be held from July 14 to 30, 2028, while the Paralympic Games are scheduled from August 15 to 27, 2028. Los Angeles will thus host the Summer Olympic Games for the third time, after 1932 and 1984, and will host the Paralympic Games for the first time. Precisely for that reason, the organizers are presenting the cultural dimension as part of the broader legacy of the Games, and not as a separate festival intended only for visitors to sports venues. According to the LA28 press release, the goal is for the Cultural Olympiad to be felt in different parts of the city and Los Angeles County, including parks, public spaces, film locations, cultural centers and institutions that already have a strong role in local life.
Six areas of the program and the idea of the city as a stage
The central message of the announced program is that Los Angeles will be presented before and during the Games through six cultural disciplines: fashion, film, food, music, performing arts and visual art. According to LA28, such a selection reflects recognizable layers of the city's culture, from the global film industry and music scenes to gastronomy connected with immigrant communities, street art, design, dance and local performance spaces. The organizers state that the program will not be limited only to large institutions, but will connect cultural organizations, local artists and neighborhood spaces in which the city's creativity is already developing.
Nora Halpern, executive director of the LA28 Cultural Olympiad, said in the organizing committee's announcement that the program was deliberately built “from the community level upward” in order to reflect the authentic voices of the region. In her words, the Cultural Olympiad must be “of Los Angeles,” and not only “in Los Angeles.” This formulation is important because it points to the organizers' ambition for the cultural program not to be merely a series of representative events for an international audience, but also a platform for local artists, organizations and communities that otherwise do not receive equal visibility.
The announcement specifically mentions public parks and shared stages on which music, dance and spoken-word programs should be held. Such an approach fits into the existing plans of the city's cultural services, because the Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of Los Angeles states that preparations for 2028 are focused on cultural equity, youth inclusion, strengthening local cultural organizations and creating programs whose legacy should last even after the Games end. According to the city department, the 2028 cultural program will be coordinated with LA28 and the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, in cooperation with artists, local organizations, volunteers, the business community and other partners.
Posters, film screenings and a digital guide through events
Among the first announced elements of the program is the creation of 16 official LA28 art posters, eight of which will be related to the Olympic Games and eight to the Paralympic Games. According to LA28, the posters will be created by local artists selected through a process led by a jury, and the public presentation is planned for July 2027. The organizers also recall the long tradition of Olympic art posters and particularly highlight the legacy of Los Angeles from 1984, when the cultural program of the Games played an important role in connecting sport, design, music and performing arts.
LA28 also announced the Official LA28 Cultural Olympiad Mark, which should identify and connect cultural institutions and organizations included in the program. According to the organizers' announcement, applications for that mark should open across the region at the beginning of 2027. This is intended to allow smaller organizations, independent spaces and local initiatives to join the official cultural framework of the Games, regardless of size and available resources.
A special film section will be titled Sport on the Silver Screen and should include 28 sports films shown at different locations in the city. LA28 is announcing free screenings at recognizable Los Angeles locations, with the possibility of connecting them with local food and selected performance programs. In addition, a digital calendar and platform with a map of cultural events has been announced, with its launch planned for January 2028. According to the organizers, the platform should serve as a guide through the program, but also as a tool that will, after the closing of the Games, be handed over to a local partner organization so that it remains in use for the broader community.
Accessibility of the program and the role of public institutions
One of the important points of the announcement is the accessibility of cultural content. According to LA28, a support model is planned through which tickets and access fees would be reduced or removed for part of the program, especially for events in parks and film screenings. Such a decision has practical significance because the Cultural Olympiad, if it remained tied only to commercial spaces and expensive tickets, could hardly achieve the ambition of being a city and regional program. The organizers therefore emphasize that the program will spread across city council districts, Los Angeles County facilities, cities in which LA28 events will be held, and through national activations connected with the Games.
Paul Krekorian, executive director of the City of Los Angeles Office of Major Events, said, according to the LA28 announcement, that the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games provide an exceptional opportunity to present city and regional art and culture to local and global audiences. He added that the City of Los Angeles has participated as a partner from the beginning and that it intends to continue cooperation with LA28 on the Cultural Olympiad and the city's cultural program. The statement confirms that the cultural component is not conceived only as a program of the organizing committee, but also as part of the host's broader public policy aimed at cultural communities, arts organizations and city spaces.
The Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of Los Angeles states in its own materials that the 2028 cultural program should encourage cultural exchange, expand capacities for local events and festivals, strengthen the arts sector and create longer-term effects after the Olympic and Paralympic Games. According to that department, cultural olympiads have since 1952 functioned as a festival framework that celebrates the art and cultural life of the host city and its region, while earlier Olympic cultural programs also had competitive artistic forms. In the contemporary context, the emphasis is on inclusion, public accessibility and the creation of cultural legacy, not on medals for artistic disciplines.
The Olympic tradition of culture and the special position of Los Angeles
The Cultural Olympiad is not new in the Olympic movement. According to the International Olympic Committee, culture, heritage and education are part of the broader understanding of Olympism, and the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage is responsible for promoting these areas within the Olympic movement. The LA28 announcement states that the International Olympic Committee supports the organizers in expanding the reach and impact of the Cultural Olympiad, while Yasmin Meichtry, deputy director for culture and heritage at the IOC, emphasized that connecting culture, creativity and education before the Games can involve communities long before the opening ceremony and create a legacy that goes beyond the host city itself.
Los Angeles has a special place in that tradition. According to LA28, at the 1932 Games in what was then Exposition Park, a major art competition was held and seen by nearly 400,000 people. The 1984 program further expanded the concept of the Olympic arts festival and, according to the organizers, lasted ten weeks and included artists from 18 countries. LA28 also emphasizes in the announcement that it was precisely in the context of those Games that John Williams wrote “Olympic Fanfare,” one of the most recognizable musical works connected with Olympic ceremonies.
The organizers are now trying to translate that legacy into a contemporary form. Unlike in 1984, today's Los Angeles presents itself culturally as a distinctly polycentric city, with creative cores distributed across numerous neighborhoods and communities. In such a city, the cultural olympiad cannot be reduced only to several large halls, museums or ceremonial events. If the program is carried out as announced, its success will depend on how much it will truly include local artists, how accessible the events will be to audiences without Olympic tickets, and how evenly the cultural content will be distributed beyond the best-known tourist and media zones.
The Paralympic dimension and the broader Games program
LA28 particularly emphasizes in the announcement that 2028 will be the first Paralympic Games held in Los Angeles. According to the organizers, the Cultural Olympiad should treat that historic moment as an important perspective of the program, and not as an addition to Olympic content. In practice, this means that different abilities, experiences and artistic voices should be included in the cultural program, including those that are often less represented in major international events. The organizers have not yet published a complete list of participants and events, so the actual scope of the Paralympic and inclusive dimension will be clearer after the detailed program is announced.
The official schedule of the Games provides an additional framework for cultural planning. According to LA28, the Olympic Games begin with the opening ceremony on July 14, 2028 and end on July 30, while the Paralympic Games will run from August 15 to 27. The opening of the Olympic Games will be connected with the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and SoFi Stadium, while official announcements for the Paralympic Games anticipate the opening ceremony at the stadium in Inglewood and the closing ceremony at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Since cultural events usually accompany the broader period before and during the Games, the announced digital calendar should have an important role in connecting the sports schedule, city locations and cultural content.
According to available information, the Cultural Olympiad is still in the development phase, and the LA28 announcement represents the first wave of the program, not the final schedule. This means that additional announcements can be expected about artists, locations, partner organizations, participation conditions and funding. For the Los Angeles cultural sector, the most important question will be whether the announced model will open space for smaller organizations and artists, and not only for already visible institutions. For the Games organizers, the challenge will be to align global attention, security requirements, the logistics of a large sporting event and the need for cultural content to remain accessible to residents and visitors who may not have tickets for competitions.
A legacy that is not measured only by the number of events
The LA28 Cultural Olympiad has been announced as a program that should leave a longer-lasting mark than the Olympic summer itself. According to LA28, the digital map of cultural events should remain with a local organization after the Games as a shared tool, and the official program mark should connect the organizations that make up the city's cultural infrastructure. These are elements that point to an attempt to ensure that the Olympic cultural program is not spent only on short-term promotion of the host, but is connected with the longer-term strengthening of the arts sector and public accessibility of culture.
Still, the final value of the program will depend on implementation. For now, the main areas, first program features and institutional partners are known, but full lists of events, artists and locations have not been published. According to available announcements, LA28 wants to use the global attention of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to present Los Angeles not only as a sports and entertainment center, but also as a network of communities in which culture is created every day. In that sense, the Cultural Olympiad will be one of the key tests of the organizers' claim that the 2028 Games should be built for Los Angeles, but shared with the world.
Sources:
- LA28 – official announcement of the Cultural Olympiad program, including the six areas, statements by organizers, announcement of posters, film program, digital platform and event accessibility (link)
- LA28 – official information on the dates of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Los Angeles 2028 (link)
- City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs – overview of preparations for the 2028 cultural program, goals of inclusion, cultural equity and cooperation with the organizers of the Games (link)
- International Olympic Committee, Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage – official description of the role of culture, heritage and education in the Olympic movement (link)
- MyNewsLA – report on the announcement of the citywide Cultural Olympiad program and statements by representatives of LA28 and the City of Los Angeles (link)