We are all in the fashion business
Written by Matt B · first published 14/10/2009
Thanet right now is competing in a world wide fashion show and guess what - we're loosing.
You can see we are loosing because the shops are closing, the economy is drying up and the local council is spending ever more money painting the windows and telling us the train is still moving.
The answer, so they tell us, is to build a big art gallery. Art is safe, people like art. That, however, is the problem.
Safe is risky. Safe is failure. Safe is not safe any-more.
People are not going to travel from Hong Kong, New York, Tokyo and Paris to look at art in Thanet Kent. They are not going to travel that far because they have art galleries in those cities already and they are not all that interesting anyway.
People are not obsessed with art and art galleries. How many people left Thanet in 2008 for the express purpose of seeing the inside of an art gallery?
Do you know of anyone who wakes up one morning and says
What is a lot more common is people say
It's nice that we might one day have a big concrete box to put works of art in. Given the choice between us having it and some place in Essex having it I'd choose us but let's not imagin that this is the answer to anything.
The building is a safe design, the art is safe art and the location is safe. You can't blame TDC and KCC for wetting their pants over the dfesign of the building given the failure of the first few designs. Admittedly those failures were due to people thinking that they could ignore history but even so - the councils wanted safe. They got safe and as such it changes nothing.
Why do people go to the Tate Modern? Why do we talk about the Louvre?
Because they are remarkable. The Tate Modern houses collections of unlikely junk that then get outlandish price tags. So much so that the real art appears to be in getting people to pay six or seven figures for a chopped up sheep or an unmade bed. However shocking, however devoid of artistic merit these works may or may not be they attract attention because they are not safe.
The truth of the mater is that as a district Thanet is in the fashion business and is approaching the cat walk in sideways pressed flannel trousers, a grey nylon shirt and a large water proof rain coat.
Meanwhile we are coming last behind the towns that are sporting the equivalent of the latest collection from Emporio Armani, the cities sponsored by Gucci and the regions that have managed a Burberry item or two.
In the conceptual night club Thanet is the scruffy kid in the corner that can't dance and didn't remeber to shower. Putting on an over priced pair of sensible shoes doesn't realy change much.
You can see we are loosing because the shops are closing, the economy is drying up and the local council is spending ever more money painting the windows and telling us the train is still moving.
The answer, so they tell us, is to build a big art gallery. Art is safe, people like art. That, however, is the problem.
Safe is risky. Safe is failure. Safe is not safe any-more.
People are not going to travel from Hong Kong, New York, Tokyo and Paris to look at art in Thanet Kent. They are not going to travel that far because they have art galleries in those cities already and they are not all that interesting anyway.
People are not obsessed with art and art galleries. How many people left Thanet in 2008 for the express purpose of seeing the inside of an art gallery?
Do you know of anyone who wakes up one morning and says
let's get the kids in the car and drive up to London to look at some art today? It's not a very common thing to say.
What is a lot more common is people say
I'm going to be in London for a few days maybe I'll pop into the Tate if I find myself at a loose endand guess what a lot of them do not pop into the Tate because they are busy with whatever brought them to London.
It's nice that we might one day have a big concrete box to put works of art in. Given the choice between us having it and some place in Essex having it I'd choose us but let's not imagin that this is the answer to anything.
The building is a safe design, the art is safe art and the location is safe. You can't blame TDC and KCC for wetting their pants over the dfesign of the building given the failure of the first few designs. Admittedly those failures were due to people thinking that they could ignore history but even so - the councils wanted safe. They got safe and as such it changes nothing.
Why do people go to the Tate Modern? Why do we talk about the Louvre?
Because they are remarkable. The Tate Modern houses collections of unlikely junk that then get outlandish price tags. So much so that the real art appears to be in getting people to pay six or seven figures for a chopped up sheep or an unmade bed. However shocking, however devoid of artistic merit these works may or may not be they attract attention because they are not safe.
The truth of the mater is that as a district Thanet is in the fashion business and is approaching the cat walk in sideways pressed flannel trousers, a grey nylon shirt and a large water proof rain coat.
Meanwhile we are coming last behind the towns that are sporting the equivalent of the latest collection from Emporio Armani, the cities sponsored by Gucci and the regions that have managed a Burberry item or two.
In the conceptual night club Thanet is the scruffy kid in the corner that can't dance and didn't remeber to shower. Putting on an over priced pair of sensible shoes doesn't realy change much.
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Waste and recycling collections may be suspended say council 
Luke Edwards wrote:
I mean, I know J.M.W. Turner and other prominent artists had strong ties with Margate ("the most beautiful skies in Europe" etc.), and I do think that a place/museum/gallery to celebrate art in Margate is valid, but I think most people will agree that the enduring image of Margate is one of fish 'n' chips, Chas 'n' Dave, beaches and a seaside barney with the fuzz (i.e. mods & rockers), not middle-class arty sorts in berets gazing into the sunset in faux-appreciation and stroking their goatie beards.
I'm not diminishing art, of course, I genuinely like art, but I do feel, as I said, that Margate would do better to regenerate itself rebuilding its populist credentials, not its elitist ones. For this reason, I'm more intrigued by the Dreamland Heritage Park than I am the Turner Contemporary, but it's yet to be seen whether that'll amount into anything impressive.