DOVER FUTURES: TECHFORT

Dover Arts Development (DAD) and David de Min, CEO and Founder of Tech Fort invited DAD contributors and associated artists and makers to view and be inspired by the Citadel fortress in Dover and its possibilities for creatives. 

The Citadel is part of the huge programme of fortifications on the Western Heights in Dover that began in the 1780s in response to Napoleon’s planned invasion of the United Kingdom. More recently, it was used as a young offenders’ institution and most recently as the Dover Immigration Removal Centre keeping it off-limits to the public until the centre was closed in 2015 and in 2018 put up for sale and acquired by The TechFort Group.Many of the Citadel’s original buildings remain preserved within the site.The TechFort Group has ambitious plans to redevelop the Citadel as a cutting-edge and world-renowned technology hub and David de Min is keen to incorporate as much of the arts as possible in his plans. 

The Citadel gates opened at 12 noon on Saturday 09/10/21. At about 12.30, once all attendees had arrived, David de Min introduced his vision for the site taking us all on a 2.5 hour tour that inspired much thought and creative dreaming. Conversations were had and ideas exchanged. David gave some indication of areas that artists could become involved with and voiced his willingness to further conversation, proposals and expressions of interest following the open day.


Photographs by Karen Pamplin Browne, Louisa Love and Joanna Jones.

  • HOME

    DDF21: YOU CAN REACH THE WORLD FROM DOVER From July-December 2021, Dover Arts Development Ltd (DAD) presented a Digital Festival of sound and visual content, promoting Dover to the world…

  • A ROLLING OVERVIEW

    WHAT CAN I SEE, READ OR HEAR? Here is a rolling overview of contributions created during the festival as another way of experiencing the full scope of the festival or…

  • WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU

    SHARE YOUR FEELINGS, THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ON ANY PART OF THE FESTIVAL. Comments are now closed.

  • INTRODUCTION TO THE FESTIVAL

    YOU AND ME AND EVERYTHING WE KNOW This Digital Festival plays to DAD’S strengths and its ambition to work both strategically and on the ground to embed the arts in…

  • PRESS

    SPREAD THE WORD We are delighted to have had some lovely feedback to the DDF21 festival from journalists – read the articles or hear the interview below. HERE is a…

  • ANNA PHOEBE & RICHARD BUNDY

    Musicians and composers Anna Phoebe and Richard Bundy were commissioned for the festival to work on a new video & audio work. Connection / Interaction / Movement inform this collaborative work, with…

  • CANTIUM: PRISON UNLOCKED

    Cantium Arts presents PRISON UNLOCKED, an evening of art and performance at the former Immigration Removal Centre in Dover – thanks to the TechFort Group and David de Min. PRISON…

  • SIMON BILL’S WORLD

    DOVER EXPLORATIONS Come on a journey into Simon Bill’s world… Simon was our writer in residence for the festival with a project comprising three strands: Firstly, as a blogger writing…

  • FORGOTTEN DOVER

    Forgotten Dover Walk on Saturday, 21st August 2021“Dover is a small town with two well-known and excellent historic tourist destinations, the Castle and the White Cliffs. But there are dozens…

  • TUNE IN TO DAD RADIO

    DAD RADIO IN PARTNERSHIP WITH DOVER COMMUNITY RADIO A key component of the DAD Digital Festival is the DAD RADIO programme in partnership with Dover Community Radio (broadcasting via dcrfm.co.uk),…

  • PHOTO DIARY: MARTIN BRADLEY

    Exploring Dover using nothing but a camera phone, Martin Bradley captures a candid Dover; unedited and unabridged.Martin has been supplying DAD with photos: Regularly showcasing a selection of these photos,…

  • DIGITAL RESIDENCY

    DDF21 includes two Digital Residencies for a music student from the Royal Academy of Music supervised by Peter Sheppard Skaerved and a creative writing student from Goldsmiths College supervised by Malene Skaerved.The residencies gave an opportunity…

  • DANNY BUDZAK’S TALK

    DAD is delighted to be able to share this recording by Conrad Taylor of Danny Budzak’s talk: ‘Rights Rebellion and Resistance – The fight for the Commons’  held in the Vinoteq bar in Dover…

  • DANNY BUDZAK’S WALK

    RADICAL DOVER The Radical Dover Walk took place on Sunday 12 December 2021. Twenty plus people turned up and we explored some of the radical spaces which have shaped the…

  • DOVER FUTURES: DAD + CHA WEBINAR

    Dover Futures – The role of art, culture and architecture in shaping the town of Dover. Dover Arts Development and Charles Holland Architects hosted an online talk discussing the future of Dover on 4th…

  • DAD FILM

    EWAN GOLDER’S REMIX For his 2022 DAD FILM Ewan Golder has used footage from films and video documentation from a variety of projects commissioned by Dover Arts Development over the…

  • DRAWING SESSION

    YOU CAN REACH THE WORLD FROM DOVER 15.11.21 The theme was open to the freest possible interpretation and also expressed through the session’s worldwide reach.The resulting drawings covered changes in…

  • JOSEPH BLACK

    Joseph Black made the drawing for the festival homepage from July to December 2021 that can be seen as an extension of the illustrations Joseph created in his DAD-commissioned Dover…