The Documenting Dover Programme

Documenting Dover is a three to five year programme that will build an archive of memories of Dover, past and present, providing a focus on the local communities.  Using art interventions the programme aims to create a sense of ownership and shared responsibility of the town's regeneration programme.

The programme will document the huge changes planned for Dover in the Dover Town Investment Zone (DTIZ), the Harbour area, Buckland Mill, etc (as detailed in the Dover Regeneration Masterplan, see Dover Pride website - link below) and will incorporate Dover's recent history witnessed by local residents and through their family experiences, together with their current views and aspirations for their home town.

By delivering this programme of cultural exhibitions and events involving areas of high impact regeneration/change in Dover, White Nave plans to use art to provide a catalyst to improve the quality of communication between individuals and groups, help communities to explore and appreciate differences and similarities and create a sense of progress and direction - capturing the ambition of the area.

The programme will encompass a series of events and interventions using some or all of the following mediums and venues:

• Sound recordings
• Photographs past and present
• Interviews with local people
• Film recordings of demolition and town fanfare
• Local paintings
• Events in buildings which are to be demolished/updated/changed
• Bi-annual exhibitions
• Community Workshops

The programme will involve:

• Business and resident communities
• School, College and University students
• Local artists and arts groups
• Artists' Fulcrum members (Fine Art Graduates)
• Invited artists from UK and the EU

Throughout the programme we will be collaborating with Kent County Council's Dover Discovery Centre to jointly promote the programme.  The Discovery Centre will house a physical archive of works, produced or donated, that can be accessed by the public.

In year one the programme will include the recording of sites earmarked for demolition, a community project, two exhibitions, three community workshops and a commissioned film relational to Dover.

In the following years the programme will include further public participatory projects, workshops and bi-annual exhibitions.  It is envisaged that we will collaborate with one of the coastal towns in Nord-Pas du Calais to show a comparison of regeneration in the respective towns.

In its final year a further film will be commissioned to record the changes made throughout the life of the programme and a publication will be produced.

DOVER PRIDE: www.dover.gov.uk/dover-pride/home.asp