Culture secretary Tessa Jowell has said that the UK’s Cultural Olympiad will be “the best there’s ever been”.

The Olympiad, which will begin after the closing ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, is a four-year period of cultural activity designed to celebrate the Olympic spirit throughout the UK.

Speaking in Liverpool, next year’s European Capital of Culture, Jowell said: “The Olympic flame will light the fuse for an explosion of arts and culture in the UK. Winning the bid for 2012 was about far more than putting on a few weeks of glorious sporting spectacle in London.

“The torch that passes to us after Beijing next year will mark the start of a cultural festival to surpass all others, involving people from all backgrounds and from every part of the country. The best the world has ever seen. Our model is not Sydney or Barcelona or Athens. It is Olympia.”

Jowell continued: “A Legacy Trust – £40m to support cultural and sporting engagement across the UK in the run up to, and during, the Olympic Games – will leave a lasting legacy in the country. Around 70 per cent of the fund will be spent on cultural projects.

“There’ll be one major arts project, running for five years, and a handful of large grant programmes each year.”

Further details of the projects comprising the Olympiad, being organised by LOCOG, will be announced next month. Details: www.culture.gov.uk