Connecting Communities

 3rd AUGUST – 3RD SEPTEMBER
‘Connecting Communities – Critical Reflections on WW1 Commemoration’

On Friday 3rd August 2018, the Living Legacies Engagement Centre launched a new exhibition in the Belfast Room of the Ulster Museum (Belfast, Northern Ireland) in association with the National Museums of Northern Ireland (NMNI). The exhibit 'Connecting Communities - Critical Reflections on WW1 Commemoration' runs from the 3rd August to the 3rd September 2018 and consists of panels and information boards focusing on the research outputs of three Living Legacies-funded projects: Women & Leisure during the First World War (Newcastle University/Women's Institute), Diverse Perspectives on a Global Conflict: Migrant Voices & Living Legacies of World War One (Ulster University/North West Migrants Forum) and Refocusing Perspectives: Then & Now Photography of the First World War (Exeter University). Professor Keith Lilley, Director of the Living Legacies Centre and Hannah Crowdy, Head of Curatorial at National Museums of Northern Ireland welcomed and introduced the event, after which Dr Philip McDermott (PI, Diverse Perspectives), Dr Paul Wright (RA, Women & Leisure) and Dr James Wallis (RA, Refocusing Perspectives) provided short lectures presenting each of the projects, offering a synthesis of the impacts and outputs their Living Legacies-funded projects have had. The event was well-attended with representatives from the offices of the Heritage Lottery Fund in London, senior academics from Queen's University and Ulster University, Chief Executives and Programme Directors from Libraries NI, NI Community Relations Council, the Department for Communities (NI), the Northern Ireland Public Records Office and members of local history organisations and the general public. Feedback recorded from the day included: 'Seeing varying narratives and collaborative efforts is refreshing...enriching to public discourse!', 'the detail of the projects was fascinating', 'great to see such content being held at national museum level at the Ulster Museum', and 'there is a more diverse community in Northern Ireland than I was aware of...'.

                      Diverse Perspectives                                                     Women & Leisure

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                                                                   Dr Philip McDermott

                                                                      Dr Paul Wright

                                                                    Dr James Wallis

                         HLF’s Araba Webber                                           Dr Philip McDonald & Dr James Wallis