Northern Ireland
Browse ArchiveThe Arts make a major contribution to life in Northern Ireland.
They make a strong contribution to the economy, with our excellent arts venues driving the night-time economy, our distinctive arts and cultural attractions drawing visitors and business to the region, and our Creative Industries rapidly becoming one of our main sources of job and wealth creation.
The arts are also firmly engaged at the heart of community life in Northern Ireland – in schools helping to build young people’s confidence and communications skills; in care homes helping older people to cope with isolation and loneliness; in our hospitals introducing a reassuring human dimension to clinical environments; in local neighbourhoods driving the many successful neighbourhood regeneration programmes that are enabling residents to rebuild their communities.
Here are some recent highlights of inspiring work by artists and organisations working in Northern Ireland today, supported by the Arts Council.
Recent Northern Ireland Projects
Artist of the Month, December 2019 – Mairead McCormack
Monday 2nd December 2019 at 4pm
Mairead McCormack is a textile artist from Randalstown. She was drawn to textiles from an early age, having grown up in an area with a rich textile heritage, and with many of her family members having worked in the Old Bleach Linen Factory. She graduated from Ulster University in 2016 with a First Class Honours Degree in Textile Art, Design and Fashion, and went on to become the Artist in Residence at Ulster University in 2016-17.
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Artist of the Month, November 2019 – Leo Boyd
Friday 1st November 2019 at 8am
Leo Boyd was born in Hastings and studied his BA in Fine Art in Context in Bristol before moving to Ireland in the year 2000. Having studied and lived in the South of Ireland for 12 years Leo moved to Belfast in 2011 where he took up screen printing full time
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Artist of the Month October 2019 - Diane Lyness
Tuesday 1st October 2019 at 8am
Diane Lyness graduated from the University of Ulster obtaining a BA Hons in Fine and Applied Art: Jewellery and Silversmithing. For a number of years, Diane was an apprentice jeweller, working alongside Goldsmith Graham Harron in Killyleagh. In 2011, she was awarded a place on the Craft NI Making It programme, based at Down Arts Centre, Downpatrick.
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