Inclusive Global Histories Trail

The Inclusive Global Histories exhibition is the start of Ulster Museum’s journey into decolonisation, diversity and inclusion.

Across Ulster Museum, new labels are considering our history, nature and art galleries through an inclusive global lens. These interpretations include multiple perspectives and encourage dialogue. These new interpretive panels are part of the Inclusive Global Histories exhibition located within the History Galleries.

More information on specific objects can be seen via the Ulster Museum website and social media channels, as featured objects from the World History collection have been selected from each of the continents.

A new interpretive guide to decolonising our collections is available online.

Film as Art: Brian Desmond Hurst exhibition

Film as Art: Brian Desmond Hurst – An exhibition exploring the life and works of one of Northern Ireland’s best directors.

Throughout his life, Hurst championed film as an art form. Born into a shipyard working-class family in east Belfast, Hurst went on to become a product of Hollywood’s Golden Age of film. The exhibition in the Ulster Museum’s Belfast Room includes film posters, invitations, and press clippings from Hurst’s own scrapbooks, film footage and photographs all on loan from the estate of Brian Desmond Hurst.

Ulster Museum Discover Nature

Ulster Museum Discovery Centres – The Ulster Museum’s interactive centres, Discover Art, Discover History and Discover Nature, offer unique and exciting learning experiences to people of all ages.

As part of Good Relations Week, our centres will extend the ‘Objects Tell Stories’ project to host a series of object-handling sessions focusing on the areas of Art, History and Nature to explore the stories behind the objects in our collections. These sessions are drop-in and open to everyone and all abilities with the aim of making connections to the objects on display in the museum.

Discover the wonders of our natural world through  our natural science specimens on Tuesday 19th September from 2pm -2:30pm in Discover Nature.

Ulster Museum Discover History

Ulster Museum Discovery Centres – The Ulster Museum’s interactive centres, Discover Art, Discover History and Discover Nature, offer unique and exciting learning experiences to people of all ages.

As part of Good Relations Week, our centres will extend the ‘Objects Tell Stories’ project to host a series of object-handling sessions focusing on the areas of Art, History and Nature to explore the stories behind the objects in our collections. These sessions are drop-in and open to everyone and all abilities with the aim of making connections to the objects on display in the museum.

Connect with people from the past through artefacts from a range of historical periods on Wednesday 20th September from 2pm -2:30 pm in Discover History.

Ulster Museum Discover Art

Ulster Museum Discovery Centres – The Ulster Museum’s interactive centres, Discover Art, Discover History and Discover Nature, offer unique and exciting learning experiences to people of all ages.

As part of Good Relations Week, our centres will extend the ‘Objects Tell Stories’ project to host a series of object-handling sessions focusing on the areas of Art, History and Nature to explore the stories behind the objects in our collections. These sessions are drop-in and open to everyone and all abilities with the aim of making connections to the objects on display in the museum.

Explore your creativity and imagination in a relaxed and enjoyable way on Friday 22nd September from 2pm – 2:30pm in Discover Art.

Museum of Innovation – Innovator in Focus

The Museum of Innovation is where we tell the  story of Irish and Northern Irish ingenuity and innovation. These individuals pushed the boundaries of what was thought achievable in pursuit of their dreams.

This season’s ‘Innovator in Focus’, Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, born in Lurgan Co. Armagh,  epitomises the theme of togetherness as we contemplate our position within the universe. As the first scientist to discover pulsars in 1967, which earned her the Nobel Prize for Physicas dedicated to inspiring others within the scientific community and enabled many others to pursue a career in this field of research.

You can learn more about Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell and more of our Innovator in Focus series at the Ulster Transport Museum throughout Good Relations Week.

The Museum of Innovation is located at the Ulster Transport Museum

Bad Bridget at Ulster American Folk Park

The Bad Bridget exhibition at Ulster American Folk Park (on display until April 2024) tells the stories of the thousands of women who left Ireland for North America between 1838 and 1918. Many of whom found themselves facing troubles and struggling to survive.

Through a sensory experience of the lives of these women, visitors are taken on a journey beginning with their lives in Ireland, their experiences of life alone at sea to seeking jobs once they landed in America; as well as the real life experiences of living in poverty within the tenement housing of the period.

Bad Bridget is a continuing collaboration between  the museum, Queen’s University Belfast and  Ulster University and is based on significant research carried out by Dr Elaine Farrell and Dr Leanne McCormick.

The Troubles and Beyond

The Troubles and Beyond – An in-depth look at Northern Ireland’s history from 1960 to the present day.

This exhibition looks at the impact and legacy of the period referred to as ‘the Troubles’ through objects from the collections and first-hand accounts.

It is designed to be a dynamic space and continues to evolve in response to public feedback, social change, working life, arts and culture and the ever-changing world around us. Recent additions to the exhibition include the George Cross medal awarded to Health and Social Care staff in Northern Ireland and ‘Petals of Hope’, a publication based on the artwork created from the floral tributes left in the aftermath of the Omagh bomb.

In addition, a new co-curated display within the exhibition explores our understanding of identity, where it comes from and the agency we all have as authors of our own stories. Working with a group of eight participants in Northern Ireland from different ethnic, political, social-economic and religious backgrounds, we invited them to share a personal object and story with us and we explored their meaning together and looked at them again with new possibilities.

National Museums NI is continuing to develop our contemporary collection and recently, we acquired MEMENTO – AGREEMENT by Amanda Dunsmore and other artworks linked to the 25th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement as well as larger social history collections and more personal objects and stories.

A highlight of the exhibition is ‘Voices of ’68’. This interactive exhibition features testimonials from 30 political activists, historians and civilians who experienced a pivotal year in Northern Ireland in 1968 when the civil rights movement and political tension came to the fore across the province.

Talk and workshop on Second World War by Michael Fryer in Irvinestown Library

Michael Fryer from the Northern Ireland War Memorial Museum in Belfast will be bringing along objects and photographs from the museum relating to the Second World War.

Topics covered include the Belfast Blitz, the American presence, gas masks and rationing and participants will be encouraged to share their wartime memories and stories. Everyone welcome!

Please note, this is also a dementia friendly event.

Disability on the Record Exhibition in Coleraine Library

Come along to Coleraine Library where you can view the PRONI exhibition “Disability on the Record”. This exhibition provides an overview of how disability has been represented in Northern Ireland over time. Please check Libraries NI website for opening times.