Tea Will Make a Splash at the Winter Olympics
The Winter Olympics is a worldwide event. Tea is the world’s second most consumed beverage, surpassed only by water. Could there possibly be a better way to celebrate the idea of so many cultures coming together in one place than The World Tea Party?
In case you have not heard of The World Tea Party, it’s described on its website as a “fete eternelle” or never ending event. Canadian artists Brian Mulvihill, Suschnee, and Danial Dion first collaborated to put it together in 1993. The concept behind it is as simple as a cup of tea and as complex as the enormous variety of cultures in the world. The World Tea Party uses various art forms to explore the similarities and differences amongst cultures as expressed by to social settings in which people share a cup of tea
Since the first presentation at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Alberta, Canada, The World Tea Party has moved from venue to venue including more and more artists and their works. During the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, they will temporarily convert Centre A gallery into a combination teahouse and performance space. They will also take their performance art to the streets of Downtown Eastside Vancouver where The World Tea Party will engage Vancouver’s diverse communities in a series of tea parties and events held in various parks and other public places.
Among these events are participatory Japanese tea ceremonies conducted by Urasenke Tea Foundation. Others feature Cease Wyss, who is an herbalist as well as an artist, in herbal tea events from the Squamish Nation. The World Tea Party also plans to use singers, dancers, and a mobile teacart in an acknowledgement of the ancient Luk-Luki campsite. The event will involve and recognize First Nation people who still reside in that location.
In all, The World Tea Party would seem to be a profound expression of what the Olympics themselves are intended to be about; the acknowledgement of the many ways all people are the same and respect for the ways we are all different.
Events will run from February 12, 2010 through March 21, 2010. Activities at Center A gallery are ticketed. For further information, call 604 683 8326.
brewed on Jan 29th, 2010
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