Pictured are representatives from the East Belfast Men’s Shed. The men were part of a new photographic exhibition, First Choice, curated by five community groups from Belfast and Derry which was on show in the Belfast Room at the Ulster Museum.

A new photographic exhibition, First Choice, curated by five community groups from Belfast and Derry has was showcased recently in the Belfast Room at the Ulster Museum.

Part of an ongoing collaboration between National Museums Northern Ireland, Libraries NI and the Urban Villages Initiative which is a key action within the Northern Ireland Executive’s ‘Together:

Building a United Community’ Strategy,  the exhibition is the culmination of a new project providing increased access to public collections.

Colin Men’s Shed (West Belfast), Derry Men’s Shed, East Belfast Men’s Shed, Grace Women’s Development (North Belfast) and Donegall Pass History Group and Donegall Pass Social History Group (South Belfast) all took park in the three-month project.

Each group was assigned a particular museum or library, where they were given behind-the-scenes access to our collections, specialist staff and working processes. They were asked to choose three objects from the collections that they would like to be photographed with to include in this touring exhibition.

Some of the exhibition highlights include men from Derry connecting with a bottle from W.G. O’Doherty’s spirit grocers, a shop originally in their hometown, and women from North Belfast  marvelling at the changes in language over time with an original Belfast newspaper from 1759.

Hannah Crowdy, Interpretation Manager at National Museums Northern Ireland, said, “At the heart of this collaboration was the desire to give these groups the opportunity to learn new skills and develop a greater voice in their community. We - the facilitators – feel incredibly proud of the groups and what they’ve achieved during the project. Each individual involved has been fantastic and we hope they have benefited as much from this as the facilitators have.”

Umberto ‘Scap’ Scappaticci, from West Belfast and part of the Colin Men’s Shed group, said, “I think we’ve all found this really interesting and it was great to get behind the scenes at the museums. It did open my eyes to how much more there is to a museum than just what is on display. The project has allowed us to talk about our lives and experiences in a way that wouldn’t have been possible without the project or the objects.”

‘Scap’ added; “The objects we chose were a corncrake (football rattle), dentist’s tools and a gas meter from the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum. They all brought back strong memories for us, from the thrill of watching George Best play football to squeezing under the stairs to feed the gas meter to keep the light on in our homes.’

The exhibition will now tour to libraries across Northern Ireland, starting with those that are in or in close proximity to the five Urban Villages.