Support Dan’s work - and be happier!
Dan Thompson is an award-winning, neurodivergent, Working Class social artist, writer, and historian. Dan has worked with Turner Contemporary, Unilever, Tate Exchange, Appetite CPP, Frequency Festival and many others. He has been finding ways to involve more people and a wider range of people in arts and heritage for 25+ years.
‘Dan Thompson bangs the drum on behalf of all of us. He is expert at unlocking potential in people and places that are ignored. If he was in the private sector he’d have a knighthood!’ Lucy Siegle, writer and broadcaster.
Rich and Strange is a monthly newsletter for paid subscribers, focused on seaside towns - their history, the rough times, and their renaissance. From piers to why pebble beaches are best, from bathing machines to airbnb, and with regular news from a seaside town you won’t find on any maps, it’s an in-depth dive into the places at the front of England. Rich and Strange is of of wider interest, too - taking in art and music, ideas of Englishness, living a local life, and architecture and urban regeneration. It’s £5 a month. Dan is currently working on a book on the subject, and hopes to study a Masters in the subject if a university will have him, so a subscription directly supports that work.
The Ragged Optimist is free, and drops ten hopeful, optimistic, and inspiring stories into your inbox every Monday morning. It takes the idea that optimism is a radical act and a political stance, and weaves together art, culture, nature, and science. Get your week off to a good start. It’ll cheer you up, guaranteed.
Subscribe to get full access to the newsletters and publication archives.
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Join the crew
It costs you nothing to join Dan’s gang of Ragged Optimists, and see the world in a more hopeful light. You can leave comments or send Dan stories you see.
Or you can support Dan’s work around seaside towns and regeneration with a subscription to Rich and Strange, with access to exclusive extracts and unpublished creative writing as he writes the book on the subject. Subscribers will also get free admission to Dan Thompson’s Seaside History Club, which launches in autumn 2024 - a monthly meetup with guest speakers, workshops, and sticks of rock.
