Sandown Trove, a portrait of the town in stories and photographs, opens to the public at Graft Studios in the Old Town Hall on Grafton Street, Sandown, on Monday 9th November 2026.
It runs until 14th November, after a first showing at the Tide Turners Kinship Gathering on 5th November 2026.
Tracy Mikich of Boojum&Snark, who spearheaded the project, the closing strand of the Arts Council England-supported Sandown Scribe, opens the exhibition book with a verdict on the town, writing that the Trove “paints a vivid portrait of a town that isn’t exactly here or there”.
A town of beauty and decay
She describes Sandown today as a place that “blends astonishing beauty with deprivation and decay”, and the passage ends,
“We choose to stay.”
The book is packed with stories inspired by Sandown and the life within it.
Tracy adds,
“Our secret is that we know Sandown is an incredibly inspiring place; we want more people to hear and see that. It’s huge to have support from Arts Council England, and Sandown Scribe has allowed us to document this moment in the town’s history through an uncompromising creative lens.”
Anmarie Bowler, Boojum&Snark’s writer-in-residence, wrote five original stories for the show, one of them inspired by the Sandown Town of Culture WhatsApp group.
She started at a Trouville Hotel window and conjured a Sandown where beach inflatables come alive.
It also has a young boy who rages against pollution, and a father and daughter drawn closer by a sandcastle.
Catherine Smith’s writing, meanwhile, uncovers what happened to Sam of All Colours, also known as the Sandown Clown.
Photographs, portraits and a pier-end broadcast
And then there are the photographs, where Zoe Barker records Sandown as it is now, in what Tracy calls “an ode to closure, retreating opulence, and the vanishing”.
Photographer and curator Simon Avery takes his cue from Arthur Debenham, a Royal Warrant Victorian photographer whose Rembrandt House studio once occupied 105 High Street, the building that now houses Boojum&Snark.
Simon shot his black-and-white portraits quickly on his phone, in a style that plays with the Victorian carte de visite.
Among those pictured are The Baker, The Costumier and The Town Cleaner. All incredibly striking and thought-provoking.
A Sandown writers’ collective adds Radio Free Sandown, a surreal radio play in which late-night DJ Charlie Dodgson, a name that echoes Lewis Carroll’s, broadcasts from the end of the pier.
Where and when
Read the stories and take in the photography at The Common Room Gallery, on the ground floor of Graft Studios, Grafton Street, Sandown.
The exhibition space is fully accessible and open from 11am to 4pm daily between 9th and 14th November 2026.
Copies of the exhibition book are available while you are there.
