Hahahahahaha... ha... yes, er, well it was good to get that off our chests yesterday. However, now that we have I'd like to apologise to Turner Contemporary and the good people of Margate (but not the bad ones).As my photo shows, despite rumours to the contrary Margate is still (70%) open and much of this is due to the 'Turner effect'. Roger Gale pointed out recently that now is the time to pile in, fill your boots and buy up every dilapidated edifice within a quarter mile radius of the new gallery. Roger has long had confidence that Margate's fortunes were on the turn, which is why, over the past 27 years as the town's incumbent MP, he's invested heavily in property in London and France.
Finally I'd like to add that my new found love for the Arsonists' Playground and its £20m gallery has nothing to do with the fact that I received a letter from the Turner this morning confirming that they will be funding my new summer exhibition Bury My Head In The Sand. This conceptual piece will see me entombed from the neck up on Margate Sands for 60 days over the summer, something for which I've had considerable backing and support from the people of the town.
20 comments:
Why don't you call your new exhibition "Let's Have a Stupid Ice Rink instead" ?
That should get the support of the locals.
Or how about "Chuck the Arts Council and Euro Money Away and Get Nowt" ?
Er, OK. That's an idea. Any takers?
stupid ice rink ehhhhh ECR entombed in sand. The possibilities are endless. I tend to agree with Roger and say Margate Old Town aint a bad place to be setting up business. But then I aint against the Turner Centre or Margate. I quoted a remark on Thanet Strife earlier written about Margate ;-VICTORIA POMERY
Selling culture to Margate
The planned centre for the visual arts in Margate is challenging local residents’ ideas about both culture and their rather shabby seaside town.
Well Richard your are OK over in the Millionaire's playground but not all of us in Margate are going to stick our head in the sand and hark back to the "GOOD OLD DAYS" WHEN PEOPLE WENT DARN TA MARGIT as you say he chas and dave days . I remember them fondly but lets look to the future
Good to see you making as much sense as ever there, Don. *sighs*
i think fart-arseing around "challenging ideas about culture and their rather shabby seaside town" is a luxury businesses in Margate and thanet in general cannot afford.
Time, energy and money ploughed into turner over a decade could have been much better spent improving what was there. Margate as a brand has been sullied forever over this period. People are going to know of it as a shithole, and their perceptions will be confirmed when people come to visit.
"when i grow up I want to be the tate"
There will be plenty of visitors to the Turner. KCC will order all of its schools to book Kent Top Travel coaches and get down to Margate. So if you have a spare van, convert it to a burger one or an 99 icecream one and you can make a killing. Dont leave it to all those van folk that decend from outside Thanet whenever there is something on.
The reason people would prefer an ice rink or a swimming pool is because they can see the benefit. Nobody can see the benefit of the Turner. It has been imposed from the top down and has singularly failed to engage with the locals. That's why their sceptical.
Thats the KCC way for everything.
The people of Kent are too stupid to understand anything so lets not consult ,but just hand down from on high.
A classic example is the roadworks on Broadstairs high street . KCC have descended fucked it up and most businesses are barely hanging on and do not need the added problem of making it a no go area for shoppers.
Some of the alleged improvements they made last year such as road narrowing on Albion Street they have already removed as they were a complete waste of time and money.
By the time they have finished traffic will be as bad as they have not addressed the main issue of at least part pedestrianisation but only half the amount of shops will still be open.
Great White Hope or Great White Elephant? I'm packing my trunk.
"Thats the KCC way for everything.
The people of Kent are too stupid to understand anything so lets not consult ,but just hand down from on high."
Not just the KCC way. Didn't we find out last week that senior officers in TDC are of the opinion that all local people are *rs*h*l*s? When will the elected Councillors hold these arrogant pr*cks to account?
I don't get how or why it's costing £17million to build (before the over-run) The building itself is about the size of 24 flats. They're using cheap construction techniques and, being an art gallery, you don't need yards of wiring or plumbing when you come to fitting it out. I can't help wondering if we're being ripped off.
Er.. s'cuse me. I'm a local and I am engaged with it.
I KCC had consulted me, I would have said yes please.
Yeah but nobody is going to listen to a country bumpkin hick like you whose sole contribution is a purple headed penis as the flag for the home country. No wonder the stiffs in the council offices thing people like you are ****holes. Point proved in my view.
"If KCC had consulted me, I would have said yes please."
And that is perfectly alright with me as long as you agree to pay for it too. What has gone wrong here is that the local electorate has been dumped with a massive bill when most of them would never have agreed to go give the project the go-ahead if this had been made public at the outset. I really think that we need a campaign to withold this portion of our Council taxes. The duplicitous scum, who decided to go ahead with this project without being honest about the costs, should pay for it.
Personally I am happy to pay for anything that has the potential to bring visitors to Margate. Paying Thanet scumbags to lie on their backs while some of us work for a living is what narks me.
I'm all for it, it will be a good thing for some, not all but some, just like a ice rink or a revamped Dreamland will be good for some not all, but re Turner Contemporary if you don't like it don't go, i don't have a family but i pay for sure start, i don't take heroin but my tax fights the drug trade in Pakistan, i don't go to the opera but my tax pays for the royal opera house, i don't like illegal foreign wars but i pay for them as well. So good luck with your campaign 6.48.
You really must see someone about your obsession with purple headed penises, 5:37pm. As everyone knows, the Official Thanet Flag represents the North Foreland lighthouse nestling among the grassy tussocks of Joss Bay.
If you don't get help soon, you'll be saying St Paul's is a huge breast, and that Nelson's Column is a 150ft todger.
I can recommend a good psychiatrist if you want.
TBH I think Margate has become a sad state of affairs..I used to love going there as a teenager, since then the town has been sinking faster than the titanic.
Landloards who boarder on the criminal, huge migration (not just foreign hey northern authorities were offering free train tickets to their unwanted to settle in Margate). KCC ignored this for years...........and what do they come up with THE TURNER...don't know whether to laugh or cry TBH
JJ
http://kentandmedwayforum.com/phpbb/
Margate now to be renamed Ugly Margate.
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