SHOW SOME LOVE BELFAST 2024

from GNI MAG ISSUE 60 - IT'S OUR ANNIVERSAY

HAIR

GREEN HOUSE IS HERE TO ‘MAKE THINGS BETTER’

What have you been up to since we last spoke?

Wow it’s been a mad year! Although we’re starting to get used to the fact that this is the pace that we set ourselves. We realised that high energy and perpetual forward motion is how we like it. We try things, we see how they work, or not, and we keep going.

Something new that we are really proud of is our weekly podcast called ‘SHOW SOME LOVE LIVE’ that we launched towards the end of the year, we have been absolutely loving it. We met a dream producer in Sean McDonnell from 1620 Audio, and we’ve found that the long form style of conversation really suits us. We’re chatty Cathys so being able to discuss local issues and talk with people who inspire us, and a pure geg is a great way to share progressive messages using humour and hot takes. It’s also offered us an opportunity to let people know who we are, and share some of our personal experiences. Good and bad. The podcast realm is pretty straight/ male dominated so to be able to offer queer voices, and talk to a huge array of creatives, and change makers, in a ‘no holds barred’ style, feels like an honour and a privilege.

We’re also working in partnership with the wonderful folks at Bullitt Hotel on a very special series of fundraising events and parties to celebrate inclusivity, fashion and music. More to come on that soon!

Last time we spoke we had just done a fashion street shoot in our beloved Smithfield. Where we had our little pink shop for a glorious 18months. We’ve just closed the doors of that unit, and the 1600sq ft unit we had in west Belfast. We have taken on a much bigger site and been able to combine all our projects into one bigger, better and more efficient and impactful space, which will be city centre based. It’s called ‘Green House’ and it’s launch and year one will be supported by Belfast City Council as part of the Belfast 2024 yearlong cultural festival in the city.

Tell us about Green House

Green House is something completely new to the city, but is a culmination of all the different types of work we’ve done over the years to help raise money, share issues, bring people together and give stuff away free to people who need it. It will be a sustainable fashion hub, an artist members club, and a community learning and social space. We will be able to invite artists in to create a community and a place to work and learn. With participation and the sharing of skills and resources at the heart of it. Onsite we’ll have our usual free clothing provision, however now those donated items can be used not only as something to wear, but also as a resource, to remake or break down and repurpose into something completely new or different.

We will be providing free workshop and meeting space, equipment and resources to local community groups and other charities. We will be a home for current and post grad students to be able to share ideas, feedback and enjoy the camaraderie that they experienced in Uni.

What’s different about Green House is that instead of offering an ‘own room’ structure, like many existing artist studios in the city, our plan is to offer space that is flexible and available to be used by as many people as possible. We will specialise in sustainable fashion, textile arts and offer programmes to help young or fledgling creatives to hone their crafts into something commercial if that’s their goal. Like all our projects, we will also have a focus on mental health and the community itself.

We are delighted to be partnering with some incredible people to help us bring this project to life. First up is Alison Gault Senior lecturer at UU BSOA, a guru of all things sustainable fashion, materials and heritage. Alison will provide a meaningful link with the existing and current fashion students. Next is a powerhouse of community Impact, Professor Kathryn Higgins, the director of The QUB Communities and place team. Whose team of experts will help us with measuring our impact to demonstrate the power of community and creativity to help with mental health and wellbeing. We are delighted that our friend designer Sara O’Neill, whose beautiful brand Eadach many will know from being seen most recently on the red carpet at the Oscars, and dressing The Edge at U2’s iconic Sphere Las Vegas shows.

Local finalist of ‘The Great British Sewing Bee’, and an absolute darling of a human, Angeline Murphy is on our lineup of stars to guide us and share their expertise in teaching people to sew and create in an accessible and fun way. Last but not least is stylist and designer Lucinda Graham, whose insights many years ago about her experiences as a student, and knowledge about how to help people work more sustainably helped us form the plans and ideas for Greenhouse. Lucy is now London based but will continue to inform our decision making, and of course pop in for masterclasses and advice when she is home visiting her lovely boyfriend and family.

We will continue to be powered by incredible volunteers, but we will also have two talented new team members joining us. The fabulous Aoife McCrory, who has been programme and participation manager for Arts Ekta for the last 8 years, and who impressed us with her creativity and production prowess when she commissioned us to provide a sustainable fashion show with looks made and modelled by local young people for Belfast Mela last summer. Aoife is joining us to head up our community impact and charitable delivery side of things. We are also welcoming home the supremely talented Tony Webster (Big Bad Llama) who we have tempted back to Belfast from his internationally acclaimed creative director world working with Schuh, Office as well as globally recognised artists to help us drive the commercial side of things that help us retain our independence and ensure that there is fun, creativity and dignity behind our work.

What is Belfast 2024?

Belfast 2024 will be the city’s biggest ever creative and cultural celebration, beginning in late spring and running until November. We first applied back in March 2023 via an open callout for submissions. It was a long, pretty arduous and highly competitive process to go through but we are delighted to be one of 17 locally-led projects which have been selected, out of 194 entries.

Our project is part funded by Belfast City Council, who announced in October 2023 that they would be investing £5.9 million into the city’s arts and cultural sector. In our case, we applied for our staff costs to be covered plus a nominal amount towards other costs. We will be fundraising like mad this year to ensure that we return enough back into the project to fuel our costs for next year, retain our independence and keep our staff employed, and our lights on for years to come.

We are looking forward to taking part in so many of the other events too. The lineup is incredible. Really something to be proud of- see belfast2024. co.uk for more.

How can people get involved?

We’re inviting people to come and participate in loads of ways. Volunteering is open now to help us to get the space ready for April. People can find a link to sign up in our social bios.

We have an ‘expressions of interest’ form online as well. In that we’re inviting people to share their needs, expectations, thoughts, feedback and ideas. People completing this form will also be invited to feedback sessions to help us shape the structure and offering.

Green House will bring people together, and help foster a sense of purpose, understanding and cohesion, and we’ll be doing so with making stuff, learning stuff, and throwing legendary parties.