BELFAST 2024 is almost upon us. It's the Belfast City Council cultural year that emerged from the European Capital of Culture bid but got stalled by Brexit then Covid.
Seventeen large-scale projects have been commissioned from an open call and it's hoped that it will be the biggest urban regeneration project ever in the city. There are gaps, in my humble opinion, but let's take a look at some of the ideas that have been supported.
• An Droichead and Michael Keegan Dolan – commissioned to produce a new multi-disciplinary piece of dance theatre: a combination of dance and Irish music and language.
• Another World – Those 'Show Some Love' activists will have a clubhouse focusing on textile art to bring connection and improve people's mental health.
• Belfast Film Festival's film project to create new perspectives of the city.
Helen Hall amazing visually impaired artists works with Belfast International Arts Festival creating a multisensory installation including choreography, audio, fabric and video. Catching up with her at the UN International Day of persons with disabilities in the Ulster Museum she described it as 'a installation developed firstly with blind people in mind, where touch and videos of conversations and dance all intermingle' Helen also spoke of how because of her being register blind she never felt confident to go to another city to study dance or visual art opting for English instead. Then did every workshop possible when people came to town all this talent and experience is paying off with this commission.
• Boom Clap Play are making the Wriggle Room a playground where play is interwoven with the contemporary digital world. Personally, on that one I think kids need more nature and less digital distraction, but that's only my opinion.
• So Lab Collective will explore contemporary black culture and what makes people feel at home in Belfast.
• Eileen McClory, fresh off her run at the Mac with Gutter, has her eye on the peace walls and is looking to rewild some of them into inclusive vertical gardens with dance and gardening. Also on the gardening theme, Wild Belfast has a citizen science project.
• The lack of funds for a range of popular alleyways ideas in the city has partly been solved by the Studio Idir and Starling Start consortium, leading to a large-scale Manifesto for the Alleys and a citywide celebration of their creative potential. Getting ready to work on it, among others, Meadhbh McIIgorm, fresh from the Linen Biennale, who already has some amazing alleyway projects under her belt.
• It's nice to see the Ulster Orchestra and my old stomping ground, Townsend Enterprise Park, get involved. Back in the 90s I applied to be a participant in a cross-border, cross-community programme there funded by the IFI, then ended up running it for 13 years. Oh, the things I learned. The street right beside the Westlink was taken over by the Cultúrlann and the Shankill Women's Centre a few years ago for the International Day of Peace, so its nice to see its potential being built on.
• On the water we have the Lyric's collaborative spectacle igniting the River Lagan. Drift, a floating structure by OGU and MMAS Architects, hopes to open a conversation about the Lagan's potential as a vital public space. Pssquared has an ambition to built 10,000 boats, from plastic milk jug rafts to Coke can dinghies. Artist and microbiologist Jasmin Marker, meanwhile, will be merging beer brewing, visual art and music to focus on forgotten stories of our rivers.
• In the air artist Robin Price moves forward from his digital success in Dublin of having an interactive piece beamed on to one of Dublin's landmarks. This time he will be working with Johanna Leech and Belfast's young coders and ecologists to create a large-scale interactive laser arcade games, featuring species affected by climate change. The games are to be projected on to two Belfast buildings for passers-by to peruse free of charge.
• Outburst Art and Kabosh will be focusing on the queer past, present and future. Oliver Jeffers is once again getting involved and the Eden Project Cornwall is consulting on the environment and climate impact.
I hope the well educated, well paid people going to work around peace lines are not just going to dance on people's trauma. It's important to include everyone and if the millions of pounds going into Belfast 2024 do not make this happen then 2024 has failed already.
