Moonbow Margate
Intervention exploring the impact of the new Turner Contemporary art gallery on the deprived areas of Margate and Cliftonville, Thanet, Kent.
'the intervention in margate cliftonville used an experimental bottom-up approach that may have little precedent in the uk'
professor loretta lees
double click image for more on each project
lido

local children demanded a disco, so the were told to organise it and they could have a disco. over 100 showed up for the saturday afternoon event that had kids dancing, playing and just enjoying themselves
the people

the amazing local resident Ginny Debert was crucial to the impact of the whole interventions success, her humour, hard work and amazing cooking opened opportunities for the project and the whole local community . Without Ginny and the project may well have fizzled out

lurca 30 years of experience as an artist and technician proved invaluable in getting the project in the lido up and running. lauren came from london for a month to help curate the shows 'what is food' and 'cliftonville now'

two people who invaluable help throughout the project, including washing, painting, driving and all round helping made kept the project going when it could have faltered.

artist maureen 'mo' black lived in cliftonville and became heavily involved in making the project the success it was. pictured here with the beautiful mobile 'cliftonville or margate: who do you love?' artwork made by 40 local people

local thanet gazette reporter tom brown only came to report on the project and ended up rushing to help whenever possible. a huge social conscience no one wants to see cliftonville luck change than tom

jace the ace offered to change the locks in the lido and ended up working everyday throughout the project for the payment of cups of coffee. a man who will do anything for anyone, the moment you meet jace the ace you know how he got his name.

Louise and Joe were stalwarts of the cafe and, always around, offering to drive and pick up stock, help out despite having their own business in the old town, great people

local artist paul hazelton got involved with the project from the beginning, paul has his own page on the website. sophie was a huge supporter of the project as both a local resident and through her role as leading Margate Art Culture Hertiage (MACH)
poet in residence isabel white wrote about the project in verse and encouraged others to become involved in poetry lead events, one of izzy's poems was later published in the thanet gazette

claire, polly and dog lucy were regulars who ended up helping out in many many ways throughout the project and were big promotors of the project

andre was a local teenager who asked for work and ended up helping in the kitchen and helped in organising events

tereza travelled from london just to help clean the filthy cafe and prepare it for opening

local celebrity krista uphill gave platform-7's moonbow margate creator john mckiernan a crash course in thanet, its people and its politics

Paul was a big supporter of the cafe and went on to DJ in the lido where he had his hardest ever gig, playing for over 100 local kids who knew the music they wanted... v.funny
by engaging a host of abstract performance and visual artists over the 13 week project, the art led approach managed to delve under the facia of community that exists in cliftonville allowing for a gathering of histories, stories, concerns, humour and creativity. at the time of this intervention, it cannot be understated the desperate situation, in comparison to most of the UK, that this area faced, and continues to face. platform-7 would like to thank everyone in cliftonville for the candidness and all the artists who assisting in making this project a huge success.
the press








