I must say that I am really looking forward to 2037. I believe the plans already include a display of iconic designer trusses at the V&A, an 80-metre inflatable trainer outside Tate Modern, the 75-year-old Sir Steve Redgrave coming out of retirement to row a skiff made of recycled iPods between the maritime museums of Cornwall and Greenwich, and a life-size reconstruction of the footpath from Marathon to Athens winding through every gallery at the British Museum.
But while we wait for the 25th anniversary of the London Olympics, there is this year's crop of anniversaries to get through.
My maths isn't quite up to it, but there must be an intersection where a suitable joint celebration could be mounted for Darwin ( 200th anniversary of birth) dancing hand in claw with a dodo to the music of Handel and Haydn (250th and 200th anniversaries of deaths) decked with garlands of pages from Samuel Johnson's dictionary (300 years since birth) and Shakespeare's sonnets (first printed 400 years ago), possibly on the roof of a 50-year-old Mini.
I know it's also the 150th anniversary of Brighton School of Art, but I can't work out how to get that one in - really, curators have to take some responsibility themselves.
In addition, the Heart of England tourism people tell me that it's the 200th anniversary of the birth of Dr William Penny Brookes, founder of the Wenlock Olympian Games, whose passing all must mourn - though, of course, it might be better to save the celebrations for his 228th in 2037.
Nothing can happen in a museum these days unless it's an anniversary, and if the subjects refuse to be born or die helpfully, there are always exhibitions marking the anniversary of exhibitions, such as the Royal Academy's Millennium Art at the Crossroads.
It would doubtless comfort William Blake enormously that although his first solo exhibition was a abject failure, its bicentenary will sell lots of postcards for Tate Britain this year. If you miss it, don't worry, the bicentenary of his death in 2027 will fill the gap nicely while we wait for the Olympics silver anniversary street parties to start.
But while we wait for the 25th anniversary of the London Olympics, there is this year's crop of anniversaries to get through.
My maths isn't quite up to it, but there must be an intersection where a suitable joint celebration could be mounted for Darwin ( 200th anniversary of birth) dancing hand in claw with a dodo to the music of Handel and Haydn (250th and 200th anniversaries of deaths) decked with garlands of pages from Samuel Johnson's dictionary (300 years since birth) and Shakespeare's sonnets (first printed 400 years ago), possibly on the roof of a 50-year-old Mini.
I know it's also the 150th anniversary of Brighton School of Art, but I can't work out how to get that one in - really, curators have to take some responsibility themselves.
In addition, the Heart of England tourism people tell me that it's the 200th anniversary of the birth of Dr William Penny Brookes, founder of the Wenlock Olympian Games, whose passing all must mourn - though, of course, it might be better to save the celebrations for his 228th in 2037.
Nothing can happen in a museum these days unless it's an anniversary, and if the subjects refuse to be born or die helpfully, there are always exhibitions marking the anniversary of exhibitions, such as the Royal Academy's Millennium Art at the Crossroads.
It would doubtless comfort William Blake enormously that although his first solo exhibition was a abject failure, its bicentenary will sell lots of postcards for Tate Britain this year. If you miss it, don't worry, the bicentenary of his death in 2027 will fill the gap nicely while we wait for the Olympics silver anniversary street parties to start.
