INTERESTING conversations are to be had in galleries. One that stood out for me this week was about the way certain “fringe art was in a gallery” when a historical exhibition about a local redevelopment would interest people more.

I suggested that as the Arts Council of Northern Ireland probably funded said gallery as well as activity in it, it was supposed to be for contemporary art not a historical exhibition. I added that art is a profession and that the 315 visual artists in various studio groups throughout the city (never mind counting those working away at home) require infrastructure to professionally develop their practice. My new friend proceeded to tell me he liked Picasso. “Great,” I said, “but he’s a dead male artist.”

Many artists are still alive and are emerging and developing all the time. Art is constantly changing though still mostly undervalued. But it was interesting to see that during the pandemic many people turned to creative outlets, as practitioners or watching creative output or reading, for example, to pass the time – that is if they weren't key workers and in the middle of it. Although I did see a nice exhibition the other day in the City Hospital by  one of the key workers at RVH who  painted portraits of staff during the pandemic.

In the annual survey of the 97 ACNI-funded organisations from April 1 2020 to March 31 2021 it was revealed that there were only 59 in-person events as opposed to 67,000 the year before. In the same time an audience of over 15 million was reached online. As everything opens up, It now seems like we have 67,000 opportunities to connect with the arts all at the same time. Ways of being and doing have changed. Technology has shifted things and, as when the Renaissance happened after the plague, where Europeans went from the Middle Ages in art to modernity, there seems to be a resurgence going on. So why not participate if you can? 

There are many activities that are free or available for only a small fee. The MAC has started a pay-what-you-can offering for children’s and family workshops.

The NI Science Festival has sprawled across the North of Ireland over the last few years, its director has moved to Belfast City Council so we expect good things there.  

Young At Art have launched their Children’s Festival and it’s in-person. They have everything from baby rave to the Scottish, Belfast-based artist Duncan Ross who has been working with local schoolchildren to explore the impact of social distancing on children during lockdown, together reflecting on and creatively responding to what it has meant to not be able to touch those outside their home, their  grandparents, their friends. Touch is an exhibition that encapsulates how some of our children and young people have coped without this most basic human need. 

Another exciting arts feature for children that jumps out is Maiden Voyage Dance which is inviting three- to six-year-olds and their grown-ups to join them on a ‘suit safari’ in their new show ‘MORF’, which will premiere at the MAC as part of Belfast Children’s Festival.

“Exploring the magical in the everyday, MORF sees two dancers use ordinary suit jackets to create familiar animals, including a jellyfish, an elephant, a bird, and a worm, as young audiences travel with them to a ‘fabric fantasy’ world of clouds, mountains, volcanoes and castles. Nothing stays the same for long as what is there in one second is gone and transformed into something new the next.”

The Imagine festival of politics and ideas might be of interest with Laurence McKeown and other writers reading at the Crescent Arts Centre.

The South Belfast Eco-Quaker Group are exhibiting their loving earth panels. It’s great to see Meadhbh Mcllgorm develop her Limin-Alley idea and get proper support from the Bank of Ireland Begin Together art fund this year. Meadhbh is a glass artist and former co-director of Platform Arts. Like many artists she recognises you have to make your own future in order to get your ideas actualised. She is working with six artists in partnership with local residents of Marsden Gardens (North Belfast), Reid Street (East) and Rodney Drive (West).

There will be a range of events including talks, tours and workshops which will welcome visitors to these spaces between noon and 7pm each day. If you missed it last year she curated some Belfast back alleys like art galleries and had people run all over the city in search of an art experience. Paddy Cullen uses the festival to perform his Death of Michel Collins and Stephen Wilson, who developed an interactive sculpture about the Peace lines recently featured on Sky Arts and on view in the FE McWilliam Gallery, invites people on a walking tour.