Yes, but is it art? This is the question being asked right now. Not just of the Fulton "walk" that nobody showed up for but the entire Turner centre itself.



I would love to say that a lot of people are asking it but the "important" event in question appears to have been under (or un) advertised the audience allegedly being mostly or all press ganged students. This is not quite the hordes of art fans we were told to expect.

So how exactly do semi-secret "art" events of questionable quality help to regenerate Thanet? I sat down and did a little maths*.

According to my sources (Peter Checksfield's letter to the editor) just shy of 200 (197) people were reported (by Andrew Woodman) to have shown up to the Hamish Fulton "art" event on the beach.

• We have been led to expect that the Turner centre will bring 140,000 visitors to Thanet.
• The population of Thanet is roughly 133,000
• The Hamish Fulton walk attracted roughly 0.1% of the promised visitors
• If a similar level of "success" was had every day of the year (including Christmas and new year) there would have been slightly more than half the promised visitor count
• If this influx was of a similar demographic to the Hamish Fulton walk it would have spent approximately nothing (being students on a college trip) aside from possibly the odd snack or refreshing beverage
• A realistic success figure would be a yearly average of around 340 visitors each day peeking at weekends and dipping midweek or 2,300 to a weekly event.
• As a test run this "art event" reached 8.5% of the weeks target figure.
• For every person there on the day Turner Contemporary will need to attract 11 more people as an exclusive and direct result of the on beach activity to justify the event in terms of the promised visitor rate
• Each of the 140,000 promised visitors would have to spend £121.43 before spending the £17 Million build costs in Margate's shops would have been less valuable.
• Factoring in inflation and assuming that the average visitor spends £5 to £10 out side of the centre (some commenters suggest this is wishful thinking) then we would need to wait through more than twenty years of fully getting a minimum of 140,000 visitors before the impact of the centre becomes greater than the investment.
• This assumes that the centre does not need any more funding to be run after being built.
• The centre will actually need £1 million a year towards the £2.6 million running costs [link]
• All 140,000 visitors will need to be worth an extra £7.15 to the town to be worth this money
• If the Turner can only pull 197 per week (like they did for Hamish Fulton) the visitors would need to spend £97.62 each just to off set the million in up keep.
• The average Art Student does not have £97.62 to spend while on a day trip.

Interestingly ECR reports that a senior Thanet District Council officer was most dismissive of anti Turner Centre feeling going so far as to call people who express such an opinion "arseholes". [link]

However the figures are so fantastical as to promote a degree of doubt that the Centre can offer Margate (and Thanet in general) value for money. From an investment point of view this is a long, long term investment with a very small margin on it. From a business point of view some banks are offering a better return via the interest rate on their current accounts.

However I get the feeling that the Turner Centre has become an article of faith for Kent County Council and any suggestion that this was not a wise investment is met with contempt. Yet how else do we account for the shunting happening within the arts funding for Thanet as reported by Michael Child?

Is it any wonder then that local bloggers appear to be mostly poking fun at the Turner Centre?


* Figures given are calculated estimates to give a general feel only. The maths used in this article is took figures available on the world wide web and did some basic sums using a calculator. There was some rounding. You are welcome to check my working.

Image Credit: .Hardrock.