Making Connections
12:00 - 17:00, Wednesday 5 October - Wednesday 7 March
Ulster Museum
Making Connections is a programme of open afternoons for anyone aged 50+.
Making Connections
12:00 - 16:00, Wednesday 12 October - Wednesday 14 March
Ulster Folk & Transport Museum
Making Connections is a programme of monthly open afternoons for the over-50s taking place on the second Wednesday of every month at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum.
Making Connections
12:00 - 17:00, Wednesday 19 October - Wednesday 21 March
Ulster American Folk Park
Making Connections is a programme of open afternoons for anyone aged 50+, which offer the opportunity to take part in a range of free activities, workshops and demonstrations.
T-13 Street Sport
14:00 - 16:00, Saturday 11 February
Ulster Museum
Come along to check out what we are doing with our new friend's T-13, Northern Ireland's champions of counter-culture.
Night at the Museum
19:00 - 10:00, Friday 2 March - Saturday 3 March
Ulster Museum
Have you ever wondered what happens when the visitors leave the Ulster Museum for the night?
The American Wake - St Patrick's Day
10:00 - 16:00, Saturday 17 March
Ulster American Folk Park
Join us this St Patrick's day to celebrate the "American Wake". Countless thousands of people left Ireland in the 1700s and 1800s. For many, the hours before departure became known as the American or Living Wake.
Mothers Day Lunch at Cultra Manor
12:30 - 15:30, Sunday 18 March
Ulster Folk & Transport Museum
Treat Mum this Mothers Day with a visit to the beautiful Cultra Manor at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum
Easter Family Fun Day
12:00 - 16:00, Saturday 14 April
Armagh County Museum
Try out a range of seasonal craft activities, competitions and trails. Activities are suitable for primary school children and children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
Making Connections: Health and Well-being Afternoon
12:00 - 16:30, Wednesday 18 April
Ulster Folk & Transport Museum
To mark the EU Year of Active Ageing, Live and Learn are hosting an afternoon promoting health and well-being for anyone aged 50+. Alongside free entry to the Museum there will be a range of free activities to get involved in.
The Grand Manner
Saturday 1 May - Tuesday 10 April
Ulster Museum
The Ulster Museum holds a fine collection of British portraits from the 1700's and early 1800's including a number of sitters with strong local connections.
Native, Visitor or Invader?
Friday 22 October - Tuesday 25 September
Ulster Museum
The animals and plants of Ireland are mostly either native or introduced species, while visiting species (migrants - mainly birds) add further variety. The globalisation of trade, transport, tourism and economic migration, together with climate change, has seen the arrival of many invading (alien) species - often to the detriment of native plants and animals.
Flower Power
Friday 27 May - Sunday 19 February
Ulster Museum
The beauty of flowers has inspired centuries of art and design. This exhibition celebrates the use of floral motifs in costume and dress, from the embroidered silks and printed cottons of the Victorian era, to the laser printed textiles of 21st century fashion.
Through the Eye of a Needle
Friday 16 September - Tuesday 10 April
Armagh County Museum
The sewing needle has been an essential tool in everyday life for over 10,000 years.
Silent Echoes
10:00 - 17:00, Friday 7 October - Sunday 15 April
Ulster Museum
This exhibition showcases Post-War International Art and recent acquisitions. The Post-War period gave rise to many diverse and radical artistic movements; unifying themes can however, be found in abstraction and the experimental use of new media.
Tags Not Labels
10:00 - 17:00, Friday 9 December - Sunday 4 March
Ulster Museum
To accompany the exhibition 'Street Art: Contemporary Prints from the V&A', on tour from the Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Street Art
10:00 - 17:00, Friday 9 December - Sunday 4 March
Ulster Museum
The biggest artists in the street art community are on display in this touring exhibition from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
True Colours
10:00 - 17:00, Friday 13 January - Wednesday 22 February
Ulster Museum
A unique and exciting exhibition of outstanding artwork by some of the brightest young artists and designers in Northern Ireland’s schools and colleges
Focus on Birds
Friday 20 January - Tuesday 10 April
Armagh County Museum
Focus on Birds showcases 20 stunning images of wild birds selected from the last six years of the Work of Northern Ireland Bird Photographers competition
A Gift to the City - Paintings by Sir John Lavery
10:00 - 17:00, Friday 27 January - Sunday 15 April
Ulster Museum
This exhibition showcases the Ulster Museum's collection of paintings by Sir John Lavery R.A. 1856-1941. In 1929 Sir John Lavery gave thirty-four of his paintings, representing all periods of his career, to the newly opened Belfast Museum and Art Gallery.
The Sea Around Us
Ulster Museum
This gallery consists of a series of dioramas with a sound commentary taking the visitor on a journey into the sea around Ireland.
Saints and Scholars
Ulster Museum
Saints and Scholars explores Irish history from AD 400 to AD 1600.
Origins: The early Solar System
Ulster Museum
The Solar System was formed more than 4,560 million years ago from a swirling cloud of hot gas, dust and ice orbiting the Sun. Earth was one of just eight large planets to form but many other much smaller planets also formed and have remained virtually unchanged since that time.
Living World
Ulster Museum
We share planet Earth with a vast diversity of living things – perhaps tens of millions of different species. Life, in some form, exists everywhere on the Earth’s surface.
Fossils and Evolution
Ulster Museum
Evolution is the natural process that makes sense of seemingly strange fossils that are found in ancient rocks, of the living things all around us and, indeed, of ourselves. Evolution explains how, and why, all life today shares so many similarities, originating in a distant common ancestor, and how immense complexity and huge diversity have arisen from tiny and simple beginnings more than three billion years ago.
Earth's Treasures
Ulster Museum
The objects on view in Earth’s Treasures are the finest mineral specimens from the Ulster Museum’s collections and they have been selected for display because of their form and beauty.
Early Peoples
Ulster Museum
Early Peoples tells the stories of the prehistoric peoples of Ireland from over 9000 years ago until just before the arrival of Christianity.
Deep Time: Episodes from our geological past
Ulster Museum
Planet Earth was formed more than 4,500 million years ago. Its journey through geological time is recorded in the rocks, minerals and fossils of the Earth’s crust. The rocks that now make up Ireland are part of that story.
This gallery tells the story of Ireland’s geological odyssey in eleven episodes.
Armada
Ulster Museum
Of the 130 Spanish ships that set out in 1588 to invade England, over 20 of them were wrecked off the North and West coasts of Ireland.
Wheels of Business: Transport at Work
Ulster Folk & Transport Museum
People have invented vehicles for different working purposes over hundreds of years. Without vehicles, the potential of any business is limited. This exhibition recognises and appreciates the contribution of transport to our economy - past, present and future.
TITANICa: The People's Story at the Folk Museum
Ulster Folk & Transport Museum
Explore the ultimate living history experience of Titanic by walking and talking with the people who knew her best. Dress in period costumes and take away your own copy of the Titanic launch ticket.
Rail Gallery
Ulster Folk & Transport Museum
The railway collection is housed in the largest single museum gallery space in Ireland.
Folk Galleries
Ulster Folk & Transport Museum
***Please note that from Monday 4 April 2011 until Tuesday 19 April 2011 the Folk Galleries will be closed for refurbishment.***
Driven: Achieving through Transport
Ulster Folk & Transport Museum
This exhibition recognises how transport provides opportunities for people to perform above and beyond their physical limitations.
Air Transport
Ulster Folk & Transport Museum
Northern Ireland has long been associated with aircraft production. The Ulster Folk and Transport Museum's aviation collection includes a dozen aircraft.
Fighting Irishmen
Friday 29 May - Sunday 29 November
Ulster American Folk Park
Celebrating Celtic Prizefighters 1820 to Present. Organised by the Irish Arts Center in New York City
and under the direction of guest curator James J.
Houlihan, ‘Fighting Irishmen’ tells the story of Irish
emigration through the sport of boxing.
A mainstay in New York and Boston for three years,
this is the first time the internationally acclaimed
exhibition has gone on display outside the U.S.A.
The exhibition features an array of robes, gloves,
boxing bags, prints, photographs, paintings
and films of Celtic Prizefighters from 1820
to the present day.
The exhibition offers a unique glimpse at the role
that prizefighting played in the history of Irish
America. Back in earlier decades, as the Irish sought
to find their feet, boxing was often a quick passport
to a better life for those who had a talent for it.
Through the Eye Of A Needle
Monday 27 July - Friday 22 January
Ulster Folk & Transport Museum
The sewing needle has been an essential tool in everyday life for over 10,000 years. It has given us sails to carry ships around the world, clothes to keep us warm, and quilts to sleep under. This is an exhibition
in praise of the sewing needle and all its creations, whether for pleasure or for profit. The exhibition includes embroidered pictures and needlework samplers from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, fine examples of Irish lace, and some more recent examples of ‘make do and mend’ stitching. A full programme of talks and workshops will accompany the exhibition.
Impressions of Irish History
Friday 18 September - Saturday 7 November
Armagh County Museum
Impressions of Irish History: a photographic exhibition by John Bradshaw. John Bradshaw was born in Cork. Over the past number of years he has put together stunning
photographs capturing ten thousand years of Irish history.
Shot in black and white and using traditional darkroom printing methods, the images cover
a wide range of places, people and objects from the Ice Age to the present day.
Richard Long
Saturday 26 September - Saturday 12 December
Ulster Museum
ARTIST ROOMS On Tour with the Art Fund. Born in 1945, Richard Long is one of a generation of distinguished British artists whose work extends the possibilities of sculpture beyond the confines of traditional materials and display.
Renaissance to Romanticism - Old Masters Paintings
Thursday 22 October - Sunday 30 January
Ulster Museum
The museum’s Old Masters collection has been built up since 1893 and comprises works by Flemish, Dutch, Italian and British painters of the 15th to the 19th centuries. This selection includes one of the most significant donations in the history of the museum: J.M.W. Turner’s Dawn of Christianity (Flight into Egypt), donated in 1913.
Rites of Passage
Thursday 22 October - Friday 11 February
Ulster Museum
People everywhere have always marked the major rites of passage, such as birth, marriage and death, with special customs and ceremonies.
Flights of Fancy
Thursday 22 October - Sunday 12 September
Ulster Museum
Flights of Fancy features over two hundred of the Ulster Museum’s finest mounted birds.
Portraits of Astronomers
Friday 20 November - Saturday 9 January
Armagh County Museum
With both an Observatory and Planetarium
on the museum’s doorstep, this exhibition
of forty photographic portraits of leading UK
astronomers offers a new voyage of discovery
for those wanting to learn more about space.
Spanning the era of early discoveries in radio
astronomy right up to the latest developments
in astrophysics and cosmology, sitters
including Sir Patrick Moore and Stephen
Hawking, describe what inspired them to study
astronomy providing further insight into
their remarkable lives.
Picture That!
Friday 20 November - Sunday 28 March
Ulster Museum
Paintings of their memories by the cross-community women’s group from St Matthew’s Primary School, Short Strand and Avoniel Primary School, inspired by and exhibited alongside John Kindness’ ‘Belfast Frescos’.
From Earth to the Universe
Monday 30 November - Saturday 9 January
Armagh County Museum
A stunning collection of astronomical images
created to contribute to the 2009 International
Year of Astronomy as designated by the United
Nations to celebrate the 400th anniversary
of Galileo’s first use of a telescope for
astronomical observations
Creativity in the Classroom
Friday 22 January - Saturday 10 April
Armagh County Museum
Creativity in the Classroom is an Exhibition of Children’s Art from County Antrim and Armagh.
Through The Eye of a Needle
Friday 26 February - Monday 29 August
Ulster American Folk Park
*Now extended until August 2011*
The sewing needle has been an essential tool in everyday life for over 10,000 years. It has given us sails to carry ships around the world, clothes to keep us warm, and quilts to sleep under.
Grand Designers
Friday 26 March - Sunday 7 November
Ulster Museum
The fashion exhibition, entitled “Grand Designers”, will highlight many of the finest fashion designers in the Ulster Museum collection and is part of the wider re-hang of the top floor art galleries which will see over 170 works of Irish and international artists from the Ulster Museum’s permanent collection.
Power to Shock
Friday 26 March - Wednesday 13 October
Ulster Museum
This exhibition contains many of the most important and best-loved works in the Ulster Museum collection of twentieth-century Irish art.
After the Bomb
Friday 26 March - Sunday 5 June
Ulster Museum
The collection of post-war international art at the Ulster Museum was begun in the late 1950s and is largely composed of work by European and American artists. One of the greatest strengths of the collection is a group of American ‘Colour-Field’ paintings dating from the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Major Art Exhibition
Friday 26 March - Tuesday 26 October
Ulster Museum
A spectacular exhibition of Irish and international art covering four centuries is to go on display at the transformed Ulster Museum from late March.
Photographic Competition and Exhibition
Thursday 22 April - Wednesday 16 June
Armagh County Museum
This annual exhibition attracts entries from all over Ireland. Categories include: Over 18s: black and white, colour and historic Armagh, under 18s and under 12s.
The Art of History
Friday 30 April - Monday 2 May
Ulster Folk & Transport Museum
***Please note that from Monday 4 April 2011 to Tuesday 19 April 2011 the exhibition will be closed for refurbishment.*** Watercolours of Irish Town Life in the 1820s by Sampson Towgood Roch (1757-1847)
Borders
Thursday 6 May - Saturday 12 June
Ulster Museum
Polish Cultural Week is returning to Belfast for the fourth time as a part of the ‘Polska! Year’ with a range of events to share Polish culture, arts, heritage and language in venues across the city from the 6th of May 2010.
Ethno - Fashion
Thursday 6 May - Saturday 12 June
Ulster Museum
As part of IV Polish Cultural Week at the Ulster Museum Teresa Seda looks at contemporary fashion design in Poland.
Joey Dunlop: King of the Roads
Friday 7 May - Sunday 26 September
Ulster Folk & Transport Museum
Ballymoney born Joey Dunlop (1952-2000) is universally acknowledged as the greatest motorcycle road racer of all time. Amongst countless victories he holds the record of 26 wins at the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy races.
Museum Matters
Thursday 16 September - Saturday 15 January
Armagh County Museum
Museums Matters is an exhibition which highlights the important role Museums play in collection, preserving and using objects to connect with a wide range of audiences.
Putting on the Glitz
Friday 26 November - Sunday 8 May
Ulster Museum
See stunning sequined and beaded dresses from the Ulster Museum’s costume collection. This display will include beautiful evening dresses dating from the splendid opulence of the 19th century to the present day.
A New Order - 20th Century Irish Art
Friday 3 December - Sunday 1 May
Ulster Museum
This exhibition contains many of the most important and best-loved works in the Ulster Museum collection of twentieth-century Irish art. The arrangement is based on the themes of Figure, Place and Imagination.
Focus on Birds
Friday 21 January - Sunday 27 March
Ulster Museum
Focus on Birds features some of the best and most engaging images from the Work of Northern Ireland Bird Photographers competition over the last six years.
Hands across the border: Dreamcatcher
Friday 28 January - Saturday 9 April
Armagh County Museum
This joint exhibition of quilts by the Northern Ireland Patchwork Guild and the Irish Patchwork Society is celebrated in the title Hands Across the Border.
Georg van der Weyden: Poland through foreign eyes
10:00 - 17:00, Thursday 5 May - Sunday 15 May
Ulster Museum
Georg van der Weyden is a photographer of Swedish origin. He has spent the past couple of years travelling and learning about and understanding Poland. As he did so, he fell in love with Poland’s beauty, history and people – as well as the country’s numerous other intriguing dimensions.
Art of the Enlightenment
10:00 - 17:00, Friday 20 May - Sunday 29 January
Ulster Museum
The period from the 1770s to the 1820s is considered the ‘Golden Age’ of British watercolour painting and this small exhibition contains some of the finest works on paper in the Ulster Museum collection.
Symbolism of Landscape
10:00 - 17:00, Friday 24 June - Tuesday 20 September
Ulster Museum
20th Century Irish landscape painting from the permanent collection.
Armagh Art Club Summer Exhibition
Saturday 25 June - Friday 2 September
Armagh County Museum
Armagh Art Club has been exhibiting paintings in the museum for over 40 years.
STARSTRUCK - Final weekend!
10:00 - 17:00, Friday 1 July - Sunday 25 September
Ulster Museum
A touch of good old-fashioned Hollywood glamour descends on the Ulster Museum this summer.
Enslaved
Friday 16 September - Saturday 7 January
Armagh County Museum
Photographic impressions of the Atlantic slave trade
Creative Summer Showcase
14:00 - 16:00, Thursday 29 September - Thursday 20 October
Ulster American Folk Park
Participants in Live and Learn summer workshops celebrate their achievements by presenting the film installation "Moving Lives" and a colourful exhibition of their arts and crafts.
The Queen: Art and Image
Friday 14 October - Sunday 15 January
Ulster Museum
From Beaton and Leibovitz to Annigoni and Warhol, this touring exhibition from the National Portrait Gallery explores the startling range of artistic creativity and media-derived imagery that the Queen has inspired.
26 Treasures
10:00 - 17:00, Friday 14 October - Saturday 29 October
Ulster Museum
If the Ulster Museum’s most precious objects could talk, what stories might they tell? It’s a question many of our most successful poets, writers, artists, designers and photographers have pondered.
Warriors of the Plains
10:00 - 16:00, Tuesday 18 October - Sunday 5 February
Ulster American Folk Park
200 years of Native North American honour and ritual at the Ulster American Folk Park.