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Tropicana Futures

This document presents the possibilities not the solution and is designed for you to tell us your ideas and hopes for the future of the Tropicana site.

We hope to achieve the solution through discussion and interaction with the Weston-super-Mare, Bristol and North Somerset creative community.

We hope the results will help focus the vision, establish the principles that will guide the design process and influence the scope of the Tropicana renaissance.

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Following the phenomenal success of Dismaland, art and culture could become embedded in the DNA of Tropicana. There is an immediate opportunity to harness the energy of summer 2015, create a new meaning for the site and look at what the dismaland legacy could be in the short and long term.

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Tropicana Creative Community Workshop

To kick start discussion we have proposed a draft vision / mission that highlights an opportunity.

Draft Vision

Could the main function of a repurposed Tropicana site be a multi-faceted events venue and dynamic social space?

A space capable of hosting and producing a year-round diverse and eclectic programme of regional, national and international music, cinematic and performance?

Activity across a wide range of artforms supported by a series of permanent and/or semi-permanent attractions that give the Tropicana its distinctive identity?

Draft Mission

Could the venue provide working accommodation and creative space that helps young people and start-up business realise their creative potential?

Could the Tropicana site be a home for subverted and outsider art, in the memory of Dismaland, and become Weston’s seaside gallery?

Could there also be exciting facilities and distinctive opportunities as a location for photo shoot/film sets, weddings, parties and conferencing?

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Tropicana Creative Community Workshop

We posed the question:

What does Tropicana need to become a multi-faceted events venue and dynamic social space?

The attendees responded with…

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• There was broad support for architectural interventions that allowed users to see out across the sand / water

• Banksy’s contribution must stay must stay part of narrative - “he can be considered Tropicana’s first artist in residence”

• Curatorial (creative director) approach. A policy that does not just allow just anything to rent the space or the nascent brand and the Dismaland cool legacy will be diluted quickly

• The Bay café needs to be repurposed/improved and incorporated in the vision for the site. Could it be a Jamie / 15 style social enterprise?

• Bravery is encouraged

• Be ambitious - regional, national, international thinking

• There is significant requirement for creative workspace for artist studios. There is latent demand i.e. Spike Island has 4 year waiting list. Arts Council / ERDF bid in?

• If there is to be pop up swimming then look to the Hamburg example of customized shipping containers

• Work with the Weston College in terms of art, creative, performing arts students having somewhere to learn on real projects and to move onto when they graduate. Keep them in the town

• The site lends itself perfectly to a music festival space - a number of festival ideas and promoters have come forward

• Be outward looking. Embrace Bristol and the region. Bristol’s creative success can be a catalyst.

• Remember that temporary structures and a DIY approach worked for Dismaland

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Tropicana Creative Community Workshop - Draft


• Bring the Weston community along with whatever happens next. Must be inclusive. An artistic approach can still be inclusive

• Don’t do to too much - get started and things will evolve

• Let young people feel that they can programme events there

• Tropicana develop / operate an ‘at arm’s length’ operation from the Council. On a similar model perhaps to that of the Colston Hall in Bristol (which is an independent trust) or that of Bristol 2015, European Green Capital, which was delivered via a separate limited company.

• Tropicana can tempt the economically active back to Weston

• It was great to hear of the Council’s plans to add additional power, lighting and heat to parts of the venue. To deliver some of the iconic activities of size and scale that both REM and Hemingway Design are used to producing would require thorough consultation with the industry to ensure the correct and sustainable level of infrastructure is introduced. All of this is the layer behind the creative look and feel of the place.

• Incorporate into local landscape – huge road outside not being used and link to green space in front

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Infrastructure

What infrastructure and services are required to facilitate the vision for a multi-faceted events venue?

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License for festivals and club nights

What festivals, events and parties are right for the Tropicana?

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Views across the beach and sea

Architectural interventions that open up/provide views across the beach and sea?

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What does Tropicana need to deliver the vision/mission?

Architectural interventions: Architectural / interior design developments that enhance the output, quality and flexibility of the venue

Curation and creative direction: A considered and varied programme underpinned by quality and delivered by expert curation and creative direction. The leadership of a connected, highly skilled and visionary creative director can be the difference between average and ground breaking output.

Strategic thinking: Long term strategy for activation that continually adds content and develops the site to maximise the potential

Life enhancing programme: Breadth and diversity in the approach to programming / content and brave philosophy within the organisation. Content that reaches the cultural corners of the whole community with pricing structures that support low income and affluent patrons

Brand and identity: Overarching concept / creative direction that give the site and Weston-super-Mare a visually strong brand, distinctive identity and evocative aesthetic

Professional consultants: Advice from production, sound and lighting professionals to help create a solid events experience for producers, promoters and customers / guests

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What does Tropicana need to deliver the vision/mission?

People power: Community ownership / involvement in return for a venue that provides opportunity for business, education and leisure

Partners and Collaborators: From within the community and nationally

Regional love: Local media support and a groundswell of people power that can help maintain a level of quality

Commercial sense: Tough financial management

Low maintenance model: Without the requirement for full time staff

Instagrammable installations: Artefacts and content that become the venue’s marketing

A reality check: Ambition tempered by common sense and intelligence; if the site was a “no brainer” then it wouldn’t have been empty for so long

Funders: What / who are funding sources? Coastal Communities, Lottery, Arts Council HLF etc – can we find any philanthropic investment, is there an opportunity for crowd funding, what are the sponsorship / membership opportunities?

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Aesthetic, style and identity

Could the internal and external space take on a stripped back, raw and industrial aesthetic that feels full of opportunity and provide the ‘blank canvas’ for events, function and photographic/film locations etc?

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Industrial/raw aesthetic

Wish you were here?

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Aesthetic, style and identity

Could the iconic pineapple slide feature from Tropicana’s past help inform a distinctive personality and creative direction that combines mid century tiki kitsch and Las Vegas style motel sleaze with Miami beach club glamour?

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Faded seaside glamour

Wish you were here?

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What are the permanent/semi-permanent attractions and who are the anchor tenants that give Tropicana its distinctive identity, continuous content and activity?

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Art Gallery

HemingwayDesign have witnessed firsthand in Margate and from afar in other seaside towns like Hastings how art galleries have played a transformational role in the revitalisation of these places. Could the Tropicana site can be a home for subverted and outsider art, in the memory of Dismaland, and become Weston's seaside gallery?

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Studios and Co-work space

Creative studio space supporting aspiring artists, start- up entrepreneurs and young people; providing educational opportunities, effective working accommodation and creative / incubator spaces. This will help embed creativity within the venue with access to talent that shape and deliver programming and content.

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Festivals and large outdoor events

Multi-faceted events venue and dynamic social space capable of hosting and producing a year-round diverse and eclectic programme of regional, national and international music, cinematic and performance.

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Seaside family fun

This could just be a big wheel or a fun slide but it can give the venue a large beacon that appears above the perimeter walls / building and add a semi=permanent attraction to supplement temporary events. This could also include artist produced augmented / virtual reality rides.

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Street food and craft beer events

Permanent F&B offer and pop-up street food festivals.

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Flexible indoor events space/club

A fully kitted out events space suitable for dance events, weddings or conferences.

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Drive-in theatre/outdoor cinema

Large screen and stage that can be utilised for outdoor film screenings live film scores and theatre in summer. Could be styled as a drive-in cinema with defunct classic cars used as viewing booths.

Programming a season of beach / seaside related films

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Pop-up motel and caravan park

Highly stylised pop-up motel style accommodation where the rooms and function spaces are almost an art exhibition in themselves.

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Social club: Pool and bowling

Heavily stylised pool/snooker room and bowling lanes that form part of the overarching social club theme and provide a constant visitor attraction.

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Artist design crazy golf and active play

Soft play space and ball pit for kids (and the young at heart) with stylised tennis, basket ball courts and exercise/gym equipment etc.

Skate park

LA / Venice Beach style skate park that broadens the appeal / demographic.

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Temporary inflatable swimming pool

Nod to the site’s history as a lido - pop-up pool made from shipping containers and sun beds made from swimming 'noodles'?

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What are the values of a multi-faceted events venue and dynamic social space? Please add your words

Social space A place to hang out Night Club? – Look at “Motion” A space that is culmination of ‘corridors’ of community activity from town to

coast Playground for ages 1-100

Arts led To support local as well as other artists. Keep the balance. Contemporary art

Local

Consider a community Share Issue ie. Sell shares at modest cost Dispersed interventions in the town. Needs to reach beyond the boundary

of this site. How can we make sure people in the town feel this is being down WITH

them rather than TO them?

Multi-faceted Market Stalls like LX Factory Lisbon Container pool

Distinctive Architecturally significant Strongly agree about the need to make use of the views – could make the

space a destination in itself, drop-in while on the sea front

Events space Flexible performance space – Weston lacks a user-friendly all-purpose

theatre / performance venue Food, Booze, Films, Fun and Parties Skate Park, Gym, Lego Workshop, Big Bang “Science Fair”, John Peel

Tent, Animator Festival

Curatorial Needs to sell itself out of Weston in order for it to be successful continuously

Brand Stylised Tropicana vs Raw Brutalist Architecture

– Interesting, Strong aesthetic. Strength in a strong, stylised brand aesthetic - “Tropicana”

Young People Families and tourists Stop off when cycling the front Hang Out Space for kids, workshops / installations – lots of kids get bored

at the beach

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Opportunity Caravan Park [Glasto] perfect for spilling onto street. Art Pop Ups in

Caravans. Pop-up hotel /caravans - holiday feel and can help make venue a destination

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The Creative Community workshops highlighted 6 major factors that encompass every initiative within the vision/mission and will help shape the successful repurposing of the Tropicana site

The following pages present a concise overview of the responses from around 100 attendees at the workshops on March 9th 2016

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Philosophy

A concise overview of the responses from around 100 attendees at the workshops on March 9th 2016.

• Outward looking approach - highlight the regeneration effect that culture and creative communities relocating business, leisure activities or homes from major cities have provided to provincial seaside towns – South London > Brighton / East London > Margate / Melbourne > St Kilda

• Curation and creative direction that retains the cultural edginess of Dismaland

• Constantly changing / evolving – specific creative terms and selective process to the bookings of the site

• Raw aesthetic of the internal / external spaces is the opportunity and stimulates the imagination

• Vision that presents opportunities for Weston-super-Mare town centre as well as Tropicana site

• Balance between urgency and allowing time to get it right

• Professional consultants to address problems that wind might present

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Audience

• Who is the audience? Creative community , art graduates, holidaymakers etc

• Consider the communities (especially young people) of people in Weston who need this most?

• What do young people need to be attracted to the project?

• 80,000 population with projected population of 100,000 – Weston is a large provincial town

• High ambition / aspirations –Tropicana can be regional, national and international

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Funding

• Be ambitious with the funding targets and invest in capital works up front

• What / who are funding sources? North Somerset Council, Coastal Communities, Big Lottery, Arts Council, Heritage Lottery Fund, ACE etc – can we find any philanthropic investment, is there an opportunity for crowd funding, what are the sponsorship / membership opportunities?

• Arts Council wants an income strategy and has funds available to employ someone to develop a business plan

• Spike Island, Bristol – artist studio, incubation space oversubscribed with 4 year waiting list and Bristol can’t accommodate them (funding application submitted to Arts Council and European Regional Development Funding which could support outreach at Tropicana)

• Consider a community Share Issue ie. Sell shares at modest cost

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Operational model

• Visioning process and curatorial essence to proceed the business plan

• What is the business / operational model? Arts Council to provide guidance and potential funding for Project Manager and consultants to help build the most appropriate solution.

• Artistic courage combined with practical understanding is a requirement for Project Manager position

• Present possibilities for governance of the site – council to facilitate the appointment of a project manager and a board of trustees from within the regional creative community

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Brand

• Tropicana brand – the legacy of Dismaland and the current raw / industrial aesthetic has provided an urban and authentic identity

• Position the Trop and Weston as adding to the future cultural offer / potential of the region (Bristol, Bath & Weston + south from these)

• What / who are the regional brands the Trop should to attempt to align themselves with –Spike Island, Banksy etc?

• The venue should avoid calling itself an arts centre – focus on holiday, resort, fun, release (art can be / is all of these)

• Retain a seaside aesthetic through the visual identity and brand to help manage local expectations

Offer

• Consider the family / kids offer

• Wide approach to arts and culture – fashion, media, creative writing etc

• Architectural permeability – what is the activity in the front of the building / spilling out of the Trop (the current café is inappropriate for emerging direction of travel)

• Vision that presents a 10 year / long term programme of events

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Leadership

This project requires leadership and ownership from a creative community who can deliver appropriate ideas to transform the venue.

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