How did Isle of Culture begin?
Want to be part of this? It's not too late to get involved.
October 2025: The UK Government announced a Town of Culture competition with £3 million prize. Thanet's three towns could have competed against each other, but local MP Polly Billington and Dame Tracey Emin saw another way - bid together as 'Isle of Culture' for the larger £10 million City of Culture prize.
January 8th: Dame Tracey Emin hosted an initial meeting at TKE Studios bringing together 20 organisations from across Thanet, including local councillors. The group discussed challenges facing Thanet and how City of Culture could help address them. Participants raised concerns, explored what would make a compelling bid, and were asked is there enough support for a community-led bid? The answer was unanimous: Yes.
January 16th: A wider group of 50 organisations met at Ramsgate Football Club to actively shape the bid, working together to answer 14 key questions about Thanet's vision for 2029.
January 20th: We launched our residents survey to gather input from the wider community, alongside this website and Instagram. The response has been remarkable - more than 400 people shared their views in the first week alone. We're aiming for 1,400 responses by submission, roughly one per cent of Thanet's population.
February 8th: We submitted our Expression of Interest and now we are waiting to see whether we have been longlisted. We should find out by end of March.
This is a community-led bid. While Thanet District Council is focused on delivering Ramsgate's Pride in Place and Margate's Town Deal, they're supporting our community-driven effort.
Want to be part of this? It's not too late to get involved.
