ABSTRACT
In its eventually unsuccessful candidature file to host the 2012 Olympic Summer Games, New York made a point of commemorating the long, but largely unknown, history of the Cultural Olympiad as a key component of the Games celebration. By 2012, the official Olympic Games cultural programme was turning 100 years old and had been a compulsory part of the Olympics hosting process at every Summer Games since Stockholm 1912. This, argued the New York bid, was a motif for reflection and celebration about the contribution of the arts and culture to the modern Olympic Games (NYOBL, 2008, pp. 180-181).
