LA28 announces the Cultural Olympiad: the cultural program for the Games in Los Angeles will rely on cities, the county and local partners
The organizers of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games have launched a new phase of preparations for the cultural part of the Games, announcing that the LA28 Cultural Olympiad will be shaped in cooperation with local cities, regional institutions, cultural organizations and artists from Southern California. This is a program that is expected to take place in the year before the Games and during the Olympic and Paralympic period itself, with LA28 emphasizing educational, communal and inclusive content intended for a wide range of participants. Although a detailed calendar of events has not yet been published, official announcements show that the emphasis will be on connecting the major sporting event with the cultural infrastructure of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County and the wider region. Such an approach corresponds to the specific character of the host: Los Angeles is not just one urban center, but a vast metropolitan whole in which cultural life takes place through a network of neighborhoods, cities, nonprofit organizations, museums, performance spaces, the film and music industries, public art and educational programs.
The Cultural Olympiad in the Olympic system is not accompanying decoration, but the official cultural segment of the Games. In practice, in recent decades it has developed as a festival and public program that allows the host to present its own identity beyond the competition venues through art, heritage, education and cultural exchange. Los Angeles clearly wants to set up this segment in a decentralized way, with strong reliance on existing local capacities. This is understandable in circumstances in which the organizers are simultaneously completing a series of operational issues: the competition schedule, ticket sales, procurement, the volunteer program, transport plans, cooperation with host cities and the broader concept of the Games’ legacy. The cultural program is therefore described at this stage more as a framework and partnership than as a final list of concerts, exhibitions, workshops, public installations or festivals.
Maria Arena Bell takes on a leading role in the cultural program
LA28 has appointed Maria Arena Bell, a producer, screenwriter, cultural philanthropist and former television content executive, as chair of the Cultural Olympiad, a role in which she will work as an unpaid volunteer of the organizing committee. According to LA28’s announcement, Bell will cooperate with the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, partner institutions, community organizations and creators. Her task includes gathering a team of artistic professionals, curators, educators and advocates who should turn the general concept into an implementable program. The announcement itself does not provide an exhaustive list of projects, but it clearly sets out a political and organizational message: the cultural part of the Games will not be left to a single central body alone, but will be developed through a collaborative model.
Such a model reflects LA28’s broader strategy, which often highlights local communities and regional benefits in its preparations. The organizers have already formed working groups with representatives of civil society, nonprofit organizations and community experts so that the planning of the Games includes different perspectives. In the economic part of preparations, LA28 has also announced a goal that 75 percent of addressable procurement spending be directed to the wider Los Angeles region, and 25 percent to small businesses. Although procurement and the cultural program differ in function, both elements show the same logic: the Games are intended to be presented as an event that does not happen only in sports arenas, but as a project that spills over into the local economy, public space, education and the cultural sector.
What the Cultural Olympiad means in practice
Cultural Olympiads have a long history in the Olympic movement. In the early decades of the modern Games, artistic disciplines were part of the competition program, while from the middle of the 20th century the cultural dimension gradually developed into a festival program that celebrates the local art and cultural life of the host city and the surrounding region. In its contemporary form, it is the official artistic and cultural part of the Games, which the organizing committee prepares in partnership with the host city and relevant institutions. Los Angeles has a particularly complex task in this regard because its cultural image cannot be reduced to a few representative institutions. It includes the Hollywood industry, the independent scene, musical genres born in neighborhoods, public murals, architecture, dance, literature, culinary traditions, migrant communities, art schools and numerous organizations that operate outside the commercial center of entertainment.
For this reason, the announced emphasis on cities and regional partners can be read as an attempt to avoid an overly centralized cultural image of Los Angeles. Los Angeles County already points on its official pages to cities and partners developing their own preparations, including West Hollywood, Long Beach and Santa Monica, as well as regional actors connected with transport, sporting legacy and cultural programs. Long Beach will have an important role as a host city for certain Olympic and Paralympic events, Santa Monica is developing the CELEBRATE28 initiative to strengthen local engagement, and West Hollywood has indicated its own cultural vision through the Bronze Silver Gold plan. In this mosaic, the LA28 Cultural Olympiad can become a common denominator for a series of events that will emerge at different levels, from major institutions to projects in neighborhoods.
The city and county are already developing the cultural framework for 2028.
The City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County entered the preparations before the formal presentation of a detailed program. The City Department of Cultural Affairs states that the 2028 program should raise the visibility of the city’s diversity, strengthen cultural equity and inclusion, encourage cultural exchange, develop arts education for young people, support the economy of the arts sector and leave a legacy that will last after the Games. City planning documents emphasize that since 2023 the DCA has worked with the leadership of the LA28 Cultural Olympiad and the county Department of Arts and Culture to align city, regional and global goals. The program vision for the period 2026 – 2032 speaks of presenting local artistry to a global audience, strengthening diverse cultural experiences, expanding access to art and encouraging partnerships, cultural diplomacy, sustainability and the creative economy.
Los Angeles County has also carried out a series of consultations with the cultural sector. Official county information cites digital and in-person gatherings with artists, organizations and other stakeholders, along with a report on findings and recommendations obtained from those conversations. This process is important because the cultural programs of major sporting events often encounter the question of whom they actually serve: tourists, international delegations, sponsors, local residents, artists or institutions. Los Angeles is trying to answer with a combination of a large global framework and local branching. But the question remains open as to how financially accessible the program will be to smaller organizations, how projects will be selected, how much public funding will be involved and whether cultural events will reach communities that usually remain outside major international events.
The connection with Paris 2024 as a test for Los Angeles
Preparations for the LA28 cultural program did not begin in isolation. Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, Paris and the department of Seine-Saint-Denis developed a cultural exchange connected with the Games in Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028. According to data from Los Angeles County, this cooperation included delegation visits in 2023, discussions on cultural strategies in neighborhoods, cultural equity, diversity, artistic infrastructure, cultural facilities, the renewal of spaces through art and social inclusion. Within the framework of Paris 2024, collaborative projects were also carried out that served as a kind of laboratory for Los Angeles: from mural and music programs to poetry, hip-hop, cuisine and arts education for young people.
This exchange shows that LA28 is not starting from a blank sheet. Paris strongly used the cultural program for its Games as a tool for expanding the Olympic experience beyond the stadiums, and Los Angeles is now studying what from such a model can be transferred into the Californian context. The key difference is the urban structure. Paris has a strong symbolic core and a dense network of public spaces, while Los Angeles is spatially spread out, transport-wise demanding and politically divided between the city, the county and numerous independent municipalities. Precisely for this reason, partnership with local cities and regional bodies is not only an aesthetic choice, but a practical necessity. Without such a network, the Cultural Olympiad would hardly be able to encompass the diversity of the space in which the Games are held.
The cultural program in the shadow of major operational preparations
The announcement of the Cultural Olympiad comes at a moment when LA28 is gradually moving from the strategy phase to the implementation phase. The Olympic Games in Los Angeles will be held from July 14 to 30, 2028, while the Paralympic Games are scheduled from August 15 to 27, 2028. Los Angeles will host the Olympic Games for the third time, after 1932 and 1984, and for the first time it will host the Paralympic Games. The organizers have already announced a series of elements that shape the final appearance of the event: the ticket sales schedule, volunteer plans, part of the sports venues, ceremonies, the look of the Games and the procurement strategy. In its announcements, the International Olympic Committee has emphasized that LA28 is completing key parts of planning, including the competition schedule, the ticketing and hospitality program, the mascot, the volunteer program and the Cultural Olympiad.
In this context, it is not surprising that the cultural announcement is still cautious and framework-oriented. A major cultural program must be aligned with IOC protocols, security requirements, local budgets, sponsorship obligations, venue availability and community expectations. In addition, Los Angeles faces questions that accompany almost every major Games: traffic, costs, the impact on housing and public services, access to job opportunities and the distribution of benefits between wealthier and more vulnerable parts of the region. The Cultural Olympiad will therefore also be watched as a test of the credibility of the broader claim that the Games can leave a positive legacy. If the program remains only a series of representative events for a global audience, it will be hard to justify the emphasis on inclusivity. If, however, it succeeds in opening space for local artists and organizations, it could become one of the more visible social parts of LA28.
Education, young people and public space as key themes
One of the more important elements of the announcement is the educational dimension. LA28 stated that the Cultural Olympiad will include an educational component for students in the region, which builds on existing cultural-educational programs carried out by city and county institutions. In earlier collaborations with Paris, workshops in dance, poetry, drumming, writing and murals had already been mentioned, including programs in parks and youth institutions. Such content can have a greater long-term effect than one-off festival events, especially if it is connected with arts education, professional development and access to cultural spaces for young people who otherwise have fewer opportunities to participate in formal cultural life.
Public space will be another key issue. Cultural Olympiads usually include performances, installations, festivals and programs that take place outside traditional institutions, bringing art closer to a wider audience. In Los Angeles, this opens up opportunities, but also challenges. The city has a rich tradition of murals, street art, music scenes and public gatherings, but also unequal access to safe, equipped and transit-connected spaces. Therefore, partnerships with local cities, cultural centers, schools, libraries, parks and nonprofit organizations will be crucial. The announced framework points to an ambition not to confine the program to a few symbolic locations, but the real reach will depend on funding, the transparency of selection and the ability to coordinate a large number of actors.
Between the global stage and local legacy
LA28 presents the Cultural Olympiad as an opportunity for the local artistic scene to be shown to a global audience. For Los Angeles, this is a strong but also sensitive message. The city is already a global cultural brand thanks to film, television, music, fashion and digital industries, but precisely because of that there is a risk that the official program will privilege the best-known and most commercially visible parts of the cultural system. Documents from city and county institutions therefore particularly emphasize cultural equity, inclusion, communities, young people, access to art and the development of the creative sector. In practice, the success of the program will be measured by whether smaller organizations, artists from different parts of the region and content that does not serve only to create an attractive Olympic image will also find a place in it.
For now, it is clear that the LA28 cultural program is entering a phase of institutional assembly. The appointment of Maria Arena Bell gives the program recognizable leadership, while the already existing cooperation of the city, the county, local municipalities and the cultural sector shows that preparations are taking place on multiple levels. It is less clear when the public will receive a concrete schedule of events, participation criteria, budget frameworks and mechanisms of support for artists. These details will determine whether the Cultural Olympiad will be merely a symbolic cultural addition to a major sporting event or a platform that will truly expand access to art and leave a more lasting mark in the region after the Olympic and Paralympic competitions end.
Sources:
- LA28 – appointment of Maria Arena Bell as chair of the Cultural Olympiad and description of the planned program
- City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs – framework of preparations for the 2028 cultural program
- Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture – preparations for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games and cultural consultations
- Los Angeles City Clerk – presentation of the cultural program framework and goals for the period 2026 – 2032.
- LA28 – working groups with local stakeholders and communities in preparations for the Games
- LA28 – procurement strategy and goals for including regional and small businesses
- International Olympic Committee – overview of LA28’s transition from strategy to implementation and key planning areas