Discovering Places is an exciting and ambitious London 2012 Cultural Olympiad programme that will give communities, and especially young people, the opportunity to discover, explore and be inspired by some of our hidden gems – historic and contemporary buildings, public spaces and natural places in and around the cities, towns and villages where they live and work.

Discovering Places (which is being led by Heritage Link, CABE and Natural England) will explore and showcase the historical, built and natural environment and landscape of the UK on a scale never seen before through a series of open days, participation and performance events from 2010 onwards at both iconic and undiscovered urban and rural sites across the UK.

The launch of Discovering places will take place over the May Bank Holiday weekend 2010 (1st-3rd May) and will be led by a focus on the 'natural environment on people's doorsteps'. The intention is 'to highlight the easy access and availability of these wonderful resources to local people through a series of events, promotions and special activities, working with managers, owners and local authorities that run them'.

The launch weekend provides local organisations with a great opportunity to be part of a London 2012 major Cultural Olympiad project and use the power of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to raise the profile of what they've got to offer, engage new audiences and involve and include more people.

With this in mind I am looking to identify organisations within Suffolk that:

• May already be planning to host activities over 1st-3rd May
  (and would like to promote them under the Discovering Places banner)
• Would be interested in organising specific activities over May Bank Holiday weekend to connect people to their local natural environments.

I am currently trying to establish what the 'offer' will be to organisations taking part although my expectations are that it will focus around branding, marketing and PR support and access to the pulling power of the Games. It is unlikely that funding will be part of the 'offer'.

If you feel that Discovering Places is of interest and you would like to explore potential involvement I would be delighted to hear from you. I can be contacted at this email address or via the numbers below.

Adam Baker
Suffolk Project Manager for the 2012 Games

Suffolk County Council
Endeavour House
Russell Road
Ipswich
IP1 2BX
Tel. 01473 260821 / 07894 598296
adam.baker@suffolk.gov.uk