Exploring Issues

Global Voices Local Choices Project:

In August 2022, National Museums NI - in partnership with the African and Caribbean Support Organisation Northern Ireland (ACSONI) and Northern Ireland Museums Council (NIMC) - rolled out a creative public engagement project funded by the Esmeee Fairbairn Collections Fund.

Objects from the World Cultures collection at Ulster Museum were shared and communities got the opportunity to receive a tour of the Inclusive Global Histories gallery and handle World Cultures items in the collection. Participants reflected on the collections through a series of workshops at their local museum in Carrickfergus Museum, Tower Museum, Armagh Robinson Library and No. 5 Vicar’s Hill, Fermanagh County Museum, Causeway Coast and Glen Museum Service or the Ulster Museum.

I worked with members of The Starling Collective a Belfast based Charity that works with people that have come seeking asylum or have been granted refugee status. They had selected a a head rest from Africa from late 19th early 20th century to explore and act as a starting point for their creative activities. All participants made books containing images based on their cultural heritage and bound in fabric. Techniques included drypoint printmaking, ink-wash drawing, watercolour, illustration and mono-print.

Don't Judge a Book:

Young People and Adults from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds explored stereotypes and expressed how they saw themselves as individuals

Bangor Art Projects: Disable My label -

A project looking at the use of labels and how these can be used for the negative purposes of isolating individuals or ostracising whole communities. This session explored how identifying migrants or refugees with disease can be used as a tool of politicians. PDF of the publication can be read here

Bangor Art Projects: Disable My label - This session explored how repetition of a label can be used as a subtle tool to influence our thinking.

Bangor Art Projects: Disable My label - Pretty Ugly considered how quickly we assign attractiveness to certain features and the unconscious bias this creates. The group created pencil drawings related to symmetry and proportion in the face.

Bangor Art Projects: Disable My label - This session focused on how politicians and newspapers can try to belittle groups by comparing them to animals or diseases.