North Belfast Heritage Launch

Young people in North Belfast have celebrated the completion of their exhibition project on their local heritage at a launch event in Mount Vernon Community House. Rebecca McClure, Shannon Beggs and Jacqueline Stewart, along with Amy Stewart, Andrew Johnston, Frankie Cochrane and Darryn Ashe, were members of a group facilitated by Public Achievement as part of a wider Away from Violence initiative involving three other groups of young people in Claudy, West Belfast and Portadown. The young people from all four groups participated in a series of residentials, practical workshops, exhibition visits and groupwork from August 2009-January 2010, and were equipped with the relevant skills to create their own exhibitions as a means of communicating their thoughts on where they live.

The North Belfast group were supported by Alex Hobson, former Civic Educator, and Brenda Dowie, the current Apprentice Civic Educator who works in partnership with Mount Vernon Community House. In attendance at the North Belfast event, was Nelson McCausland MLA, Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure who was impressed with the work produced by the young people. Through the Away from Violence programme, Public Achievement will continue to support the group in Mount Vernon as they seek to address some of the issues they have identified.

Launch events for the West Belfast and Claudy groups will take place in the next few weeks in their local communities. A Belfast-based launch for all four groups will take place on Monday 21st June at 7.30pm in the Golden Thread Gallery and all four of the group’s exhibitions will be on display in the gallery from Saturday 19th June-Friday 25th June. A leaflet on the project can be downloaded from the Publication section.