Sandown enters the UK Town of Culture 2028 competition
Turd Town to Culture Town?
This year, the Government has asked towns to submit bids for a competition to win £3 million to implement a community-defined programme. Sandown Town Council passed a motion at their full council meeting to act as the accountable body. This would involve working alongside a community group to deliver an Expression of Interest by the end of March. If your town is selected for the longlist, it will receive £60,000 to develop the plan!
To apply, we have to tell our story, what makes us special and what shapes our culture. But what is culture? Is it a thing that happens elsewhere? Or is it found in the camaraderie of the cold-water plungers and in the community of our regatta revellers? Does it hang out with our fish-savers or is it embedded under the nails of our green-fingered volunteers? And yes, it’s also about our feelings of neglect and decline, mirrored in our derelict buildings. It’s why some of us avoid the tattered edges and squirm when quizzed by daytrippers.
This is an opportunity to tell the honest story of Sandown and how we want to evolve, to grow new shoots. After all, Darwin began his work on the Origin of Species right here in a building that now stands derelict. Now that is a story worth telling…
After several meetings and a very active WhatsApp Group (please listen to the 3-minute story inspired by that below), we have submitted our Expression of Interest. Here’s Sandown’s vision:
| 2.1 Vision |
| Our Shunderful Town Sandown is a town crafted by the sea. Tides constantly shape the dramatic Cretaceous cliffs and sandy beaches of our spectacular Bay. Ebb and flow are part of our human history too. Our identity was forged by the restorative air that lured the Victorian elite and the seaside fun that drew in the Bucket and Spaders. These contrasting eras of Pierrots, promenades, pink candy floss and arcades made our hearts and coffers sing. When they vanished, and the tourism tide ebbed, Sandown did not disappear; we simply turned inward. Sandownians developed resilience in bright bucketfuls. Our character and culture evolved as we unified as volunteers, carnivalers, cold-water swimmers, Regatta hat paraders, Hullabalooers, Canoe-lake-carp-savers and Sandown Clowners. Amalgamating the words shabby and wonderful in the style of Lewis Carroll, a famous visitor to our town, Sandown is a shunderful paradox as you’re never more than 500 metres from crumbling dereliction and the natural beauty of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. But rather than being defined by decay, we plan to turn the tide. In 2028, we will prove we are the Tide Turners, revivifying Sandown’s sense of place and future-proofing its economy. Our programme, comprising placemaking projects, fieldwork residencies, hands-on science, and performance, is rooted in passionate community involvement. Launching early in the year, it will culminate in the Tide Turner Festival, featuring four thematic pavilions that explore origin, ecology, wellbeing, and imagination. Origin: Unearthing roots, from the footprints of dinosaurs via Darwin’s momentous writings, On the Origin of Species, penned initially in Sandown, to the manufacture of habitat-creating vertipools; our town has always been a place of discovery. Curiosity: Using science and art to explore nature and imagination, showcasing innovative artist and academic partnerships in work responding to our place. Wonder: Recognising our deep carnival heritage, where everyone’s a participant, we’ll celebrate the diverse voices that gain expression through community arts. Adaptation: Engineering recovery through creativity, an innovative partnership with marine sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor will create a lasting body of work. We will build the Tide Turner: a new engine of change reconnecting culture, environment, health, and education. We celebrate Sandown’s power of assembly, where land, sea, people, and nature meet. We are defining the UK’s first culture-led coastal regeneration model rooted in biosphere science. As Darwin wrote: “from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful are being evolved.” |
And why do we need the investment:
| 2.2 Local Needs |
| Sandown faces the socio-economic and environmental challenges typical of coastal communities, intensified by Island factors, making it the most neglected town in East Wight, itself the second most ‘left-behind’ constituency in England (Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods 2025). Research repeatedly identifies dereliction of buildings and infrastructure as both a socio-economic and health crisis; no one here lives more than 500m from a destroyed, burned-out, demolished or abandoned site, a nationally shocking statistic. A declining and seasonal visitor economy, limited year-round employment, youth out-migration, health inequality, and a deepening belief that Sandown has been abandoned, challenge not only the physical environment but community confidence, pride in place, opportunities for young people and the mental health and wellbeing of Sandown citizens (Dereliction Survey 2025). The Feeling Towns project (Southampton University 2023) highlighted that residents are proud of Sandown’s beach, landscape, and strong community networks, but feel that the town’s potential is not being realised and that opportunities for creative, cultural, and business development are limited. Reports from the High Streets Task Force (2023) also identified a lack of a strong, shared vision and consequent civic decay as major barriers to regeneration, affecting both perception and investment in the town centre.Town of Culture (TOC) investment will reignite cultural production as the engine of regeneration, skills development, and community wealth-building. We will shape wide-angled opportunities for participation and agency for young people, families, older cohorts, practitioners, businesses, and volunteers. We will also work with our community protection team to reach people in temporary accommodation with complex needs. Cultural production will drive skills in creative industries and life sciences (UK Industrial Strategy priorities), building new pathways into employment and enterprise. The bid aligns with existing and emerging policy, Isle of Wight Council regeneration plans, the Bay Place Plan, IWC Poverty Reduction, Education, Skills and Learning Strategies, the Island and Solent Growth Strategies, UNESCO Biosphere priorities, and neighbourhood action plans. The TOC programme provides a framework to bring these together into a compelling cultural vision, fully aligned with the Isle of Wight Cultural Strategy 2023-2033. Sandown is at a critical point. As the most acute expression of wider East Wight challenges, it presents both risks and opportunities. Without support, decline will deepen; with TOC investment, Sandown can shift into rapid, sustained recovery. |
And here are just some of the ideas that began to form:
| 3.1 Quality and Innovation |
| Sandown has access to a robust Island-grown infrastructure. Tide Turner is anchored by the ecological expertise of Artecology, the conservation leadership of The Wildheart Trust, and the creative placemaking of Boojum&Snark. Supported by partners like Shademakers, StoneCrabs Theatre, and Ventnor Exchange, this core delivery team has inclusivity in its DNA. UK Town of Culture investment will allow us to leverage high-level frameworks with the Jason deCaires Taylor Studio and national universities, creating a precedent that attracts year-round jobs, visitors, and national media to our coastal economy. In early 2028, our programme begins with a series of place-based commissions featuring co-creation and community participation. This momentum will culminate with a two-week Tide Turner Festival, a scaled-up, evolution of our popular Hullabaloo festival (2017–2022). The lead-in programme features: Endless Forms Public Realm Sculpture: A landmark collaboration between Jason deCaires Taylor and Artecology, integrating living art into the Environment Agency’s 2028 coastal defence upgrades to create a stunning marine attraction. School of Sandown: In partnership with the Universities, we will launch fieldwork residencies targeting the 18–30 demographic. This brings researchers and young residents together to co-create solutions through active participation, with a core focus on delivering measurable health and well-being outcomes. Tree of Life Commissions and Art Trail: We will feature contemporary artists with deep Island connections, including creative practitioners who explore natural pigments and coastal landscapes. Puppet maker Teresa Grimaldi will reinvigorate our seaside heritage through modern storytelling. A bronze “Evolution Discovery” sculptural trail throughout the town and new collaborative works with local glassblower Ed Evans (Glory Art Glass). The Tangled Bank: A community eco-installation in front of the derelict Kings Head hotel site, where Darwin began On the Origin of Species. This will be a collaboration between eco-artist and Green Town Volunteers, serving as a living tribute to Darwin’s “tangled bank” idea. Tide Turner festival will be built around four Pavilions that map our past onto our future: Origin (heritage), Curiosity (science/imagination), Wonder (carnival and community participation), and Adaptation (Biosphere and future culture).By 2028, we will move from just surviving to evolving and “turning the tide,” establishing Sandown as a new voice that harnesses art, science, and inclusivity to effect coastal recovery for all. |
We Are The Bomb Squad
Listen to a flash fiction story written by Anmarie Bowler inspired by the Sandown Town of Culture WhatsApp Group 2026
SNARK (Sandown New Action for Regeneration and Kinship) is a new partnership with representation from local businesses, artists, schools, and families that will act as the delivery body. SNARK will be responsible for co-designing the major community submission due 31 March. Want to find out more, then please email Tracy at boojumandnsark@gmail.com
#UKTOWNOFCULTURE2028 #SANDOWN2028 #LetsCreate #LocalCulture #IrisManifesto #InspiredbySandown