A Decade Since Dismaland
Weston Museum
Saturday 13 September 2025 – Saturday 22 November 2025 (The Museum is CLOSED on a Sunday and Monday, as well as closing for a private function on Saturday 11 October 2025 and Saturday 18 October 2025)
Weston Museum will be home to a dismal exhibition this September
The 21st August marks 10 years since Banksy’s Dismaland opened in the Tropicana. After weeks of speculation, visitors were invited in to experience the bemusement park, a swipe at consumerism and the way theme parks brush away reality. The art installation curated by Banksy included over 50 international artists including Damien Hirst, Julie Burchill and Jimmy Cauty. Over the next five weeks 150,000 visitors passed through the gates.
Photographer Barry Cawston visited the site over fifteen times during these five weeks. The visits resulted in his project ‘Are We There Yet?’ documenting both Dismaland and Weston’s town centre. The collection of images highlighted how many of the conversations raised in the park were being experienced in the town itself.
Opening on the 13th September, Weston Museum will be home to the exhibition ‘A Decade Since Dismaland` showcasing some of the images from Barry Cawston’s project, a decade after they were first taken. Also on display will be a small collection of memorabilia from a private collection.
Barry Cawston’s photography has both sociological and architectural elements. His images capture the beauty of otherwise passed over scenes and places with a cinematic quality that is enhanced by Cawston’s attention to detail and brilliant use of colour.
His exhibitions have toured museums in Europe as well as being shown in the Marble Palace in St Petersburg. Cawston also had a six month solo exhibition in Völklingen Ironworks in Germany which attracted 200.000 visitors
Cawston has won numerous awards and competitions including the British Open Art Award, The Nikon BJP Endframe Award, The Black Swan Open Art Prize and the Exeter Contemporary Open. In 2023 he was the choice of Fiona Robinson, the new Chairman of the RWA to become an honourary RWA academician.
