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 June 2019 – Catherine Minford
Monday 3rd June 2019 at 9am
Catherine Minford lives in Belfast and studied life drawing in both Belfast and Boston. She works as a creative writer in a design agency and in describing her sculptural practice she states that “In that world I use words to tell stories, and in this one, I use clay.”
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Artist of the Month May 2019 – Aimee Melaugh
Wednesday 1st May 2019 at 9am
Aimee Melaugh studied at the University of Ulster’s Belfast School of Art, graduating in 2018 with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art Painting. At the Belfast School of Art Degree show, Aimee was selected to exhibit at the Royal Ulster Academy and was longlisted for the RDS Visual Arts Award.
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Artist of the Month April 2019 – Dan Dowling
Monday 1st April 2019 at 9am
Dan Dowling was born and educated in Belfast. He is a self-taught artist, using painting and drawing from an early age as a cathartic form of self-expression and as a way of communicating with the rest of the world. Using his own life and his native North Belfast as an inspiration, he developed a personal, enigmatic an immediately recognisable style.
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