The LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games on Thursday named former MOCA board chair and Emmy-winning TV writer-producer Maria Arena Bell as chair of the Cultural Olympiad. The storied program, which has been a part of every Olympic Games for more than a century, seeks to highlight the depth and breadth of each host city’s artistic and cultural offerings through performances, exhibitions, workshops, installations and educational activities beginning a year before the Games and culminating with the summer proceedings.
“I think it’s the world’s cultural capital,” Bell said of Los Angeles in a recent phone interview. “It’s so important that we see ourselves as a city of artists and know that the culture of our arts is what binds us together.”
Bell and her husband, William J. Bell Jr., are noted philanthropists and art collectors who own work by Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons. Bell has also served in various capacities in arts organizations across the city, including on the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Commission and as MOCA’s board co-chair from 2009 to 2014. Renowned L.A.-based artist Mark Bradford worked with Bell on that board and noted in a news release that she “is a committed leader who listens, shows up and does the work with precision and intelligence. I know she will cook up something that we haven’t seen before for LA28’s Cultural Olympiad.”
Bell also chaired and later served as president of P.S. Arts from 2003 to 2013. The organization, dedicated to bringing the arts into Title 1 elementary schools in L.A. County and the Central Valley, has served thousands of children since its inception.
Bell is known in Hollywood for her work as former head writer and executive producer of the soap opera “The Young and the Restless,” which was co-created by her father-in-law, William J. Bell, in the 1970s, and which earned her a Daytime Emmy in 2011. In 2013, she founded Vitameatavegamin Productions, and the most recent documentary film she produced, “The Warhol Effect,” premiered on Sky Arts this year. (Bell and her husband are also known for their interest in architecture. A Malibu home designed by notable Japanese architect Tadao Ando, and commissioned by Bell’s husband, recently sold to Jay-Z and Beyoncé for a reported $200 million.)
Bell thinks arts and culture in L.A. encompass Hollywood and the music industry. Her work in both the glitzy realms of artistic creation and the more refined world of fine art inform her thinking about the Cultural Olympiad. She is already working diligently as a volunteer with the LA28 organizing committee to bring together a group of arts professionals, curators, educators and advocates to begin envisioning how the Cultural Olympiad will manifest in areas — big and small — throughout the region. Other partners in planning include the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and the L.A. County Department of Arts and Culture, as well as a variety of community organizations.
The goal, Bell says, is to make the programming as rich and diverse as possible, and to include multiple aspects of the city’s artistic heritage and legacy — all while positioning and building the arts scene for a healthy future.
“Maria is uniquely qualified to lead and organize the LA28 Cultural Olympiad through her 30 years of experience as an executive, founder and champion of the arts,” said LA28 Chairperson and President Casey Wasserman in a news release. “A native Angeleno, Maria knows our community and will develop an inclusive Cultural Olympiad that will have a lasting impact on Southern California.”
Bell said she hopes to create a centralized daily calendar that includes all the events, performances, exhibitions and festivals that the city and its international visitors can look forward to. This will include film, fashion and culinary events alongside performance and fine arts. She also wants to create installations that will remain after the Games are over — like the freeway murals from the 1984 Olympics or the gates at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum.
“My plan is to meet with artists and and arts organizations of every size and to really connect with people and hear what they have to say,” Bell said of a series of listening sessions that the city is organizing. “It’s our Olympiad for the whole city, and it should feel very, very inclusive. We don’t want to stand in people’s way. We want to partner with them and assist, if we can.”
Education and engaging children are high on Bell’s list. Through her work with P.S. ARTS, she saw firsthand how art can transform and unify schools, and she wants to implement as many programs for kids as possible.
“Maria Bell is that rare civic leader whose love for Los Angeles, its communities and its children lead to meaningful, impactful changes in our city,” said John Lawler, chief executive officer of P. S. ARTS, in a news release. “Under her passionate leadership at P. S. ARTS, the organization doubled in size, ensuring access to quality arts classes for tens of thousands of children.”
Each Cultural Olympiad must pick a theme (Paris 2024 chose the intersection of art and sport). Bell said the possibilities are many, but rather than being intimidated by the vast nature of the city’s arts scene, Bell feels energized. She wants to weave the experience of art into the daily lives of everyone in the area so they can feel like they are all part of the “same giant festival in a great, great city built on dreams and creativity.”
