The Linen Hall Library holds world-renowned collections and always seeks ways to make those collections as available to the general public as possible. One of the ways we do this is through project funding. Below is a list of funded projects that are currently active at the Linen Hall.
Making the Future – Women in the Archives
Making the Future is a major new cultural heritage project delivered by a consortium of partners, the Nerve Centre, National Museums Northern Ireland, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and Linen Hall Library.
The cultural and heritage organisations are leading a change programme of cultural engagement, creativity and skills development across Northern Ireland and border counties, supported by the European Union’s PEACE IV Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB).
Over the next three years, the Making the Future project will explore the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland and border counties in ROI and empower ordinary people to create a powerful vision for future change.
Through a programme of interconnected activities, the project will use significant objects, collections and archives as a stimulus to pose challenging questions about the past, ‘take the temperature’ of where we are at currently as a society, and create potential solutions for our future well-being.
Participants and audiences will have multiple opportunities to get involved, to have their voices heard, to tell stories relevant to their lives, and to make a positive contribution, changing themselves and society along the way.
Culture Lab: Making the Future
Examining identity and culture through a major interactive and participatory programme
Troubles Art
Exhibition of related art from National Museums NI collections, touring border counties
Partition
Exploring partition and the emergence of new social and political states
Creative Centenaries
Digital creativity programme of Hothouses linked to key centenaries in Ireland’s past
Women in the Archives
Uncovering hidden and untold stories from the archives of Linen Hall Library and PRONI
Conflict to Peace
Intergenerational programme examining our recent past through community loan box resources
100 Shared Stories
Creating shareable digital stories from the archives at PRONI reflecting on last 100 years
Cultural Fusion
Filmmaking programme with ethnic minority communities, exploring culture and identity
Making the Future Oral Archive
Development of an oral archive featuring participants across Making the Future
Funded by:
Partners:
Linenopolis
Linenopolis will explore the industrial heritage of Belfast with its partners and local people in order to design and develop an exhibition and linen heritage walking tour. Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund Northern Ireland, Tourism NI and the Department for Communities Historic Environment Division, the project will be developed in partnership with Belfast Exposed, Ormeau Business Partnership and Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). Community groups will be engaged throughout the project to investigate social history themes including health, working and family life. An archive of oral history will be collected along with photographs and material relating to the linen industry. We are also pleased to be working with other museum services including Causeway Museum Service.
Belfast Exposed Photography Project
This project will allow participants to investigate the built heritage and cultural landscape of Belfast’s Linen Quarter. Community participants will visit key sites to photographically record buildings as they appear now. Participants will learn how to use digital, 35mm film and pinhole cameras. These photographs will form part of the project’s final exhibition and walking tour leaflet.
Tour Guide Training
A course of training will be available to participants who wish to develop skills in tour guiding. This will be held in partnership with Ormeau Business Park who will host the workshops. Prospective guides will learn how to be self-employed, hear from key local historians, and get hands-on experience of guiding groups. Once this is completed the group will develop scripts and carry out research to enrich their historical knowledge.
Exhibition and Walking Tour Leaflet
An exhibition will form part of the grand finale of the project. The exhibition will give insight into the history and meaning of the Linen Quarter and linen industry in Belfast. Artists will provide exhibition pieces to show how linen is used today and also to reflect on the long connection Northern Ireland has with linen production. The exhibition will begin at the Linen Hall Library then travel to PRONI, Belfast Exposed, Ormeau Business Park and other museums. The exhibition will also formally launch the walking tour. Community guides will be available to lead a tour around the sights of the Linen Quarter. Maps can also be purchased to facilitate a self-guided tour. Guided tours will last approximately an hour.
Funders:
Seen and Heard
The Evolution of Women’s Lives in Northern Ireland – 1965 – 2018
Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, this project focuses on the evolving role and attitudes of women in Northern Ireland from 1965 onwards. The key area of investigation will focus on the changing roles of women during this period, concentrating on the themes of identity, working life, family life, health and social care, industry, and the Troubles.
Drawing from the Linen Hall Library’s existing collections of archive materials, objects and ephemera, most notably the Northern Ireland Political Collection, the Theatre and Performing Arts Archive, and the Literary Archive, this project will explore societal attitudes, issues and changes over the last fifty plus years.
The development phase of this project will assess the scope and range of the aforementioned collections, identifying the variety and wealth of material relating to women’s rights and lived experience, whilst also identifying gaps and opportunities for collections’ enhancement going forward. Alongside this, the library will engage and forge links with the wider community and women’s groups within the region in order to facilitate open discussion and gauge responses to a project of this kind.
Further to this, it is anticipated that the delivery phase of the project will result in a variety of educational and outreach opportunities.
Funded by:
