Integral to the National Portrait Gallery/BT Road to 2012 Project is an exciting participation programme that will develop in momentum over the next three years. Each year creative projects will be developed involving communities both young and old who live or work in one of the five Olympic host boroughs. It will provide a simultaneous snapshot on the vision for London 2012 through local voices and views drawn from where the Olympic and Paralympic Games will take place. The participation programme provides a public face for the National Portrait Gallery/BT Road to 2012 Project and a springboard to encourage others to get involved.

Participants of all ages will be drawn from different educational backgrounds. Some groups will have the opportunity to develop new skills in photography, film and audio production by working with Gallery and local delivery partners. Opportunities to meet the commissioned photographers will be part of this process.   Others approaches will involve local experts and creatives in partnership with artist studios, colleges and universities who are nurturing existing and new talent in East London.

All projects will explore themes associated with the photographic portrait commissions as they develop over the next three years, generating creative narratives in response and informing the interpretation of the commissions. The initial focus will be working with groups around the Olympic park whose landscape is transforming and changing so dramatically.

Over time, the material generated through the participation programme will provide further context and interpretative material for the annual Gallery displays and will be available in full on the Project website which launches in summer 2010.

More details on projects and partners to follow in spring 2010.