Support the MAC – Give Today
Click through the tabs to see our achieve of past projects!
The Shake Community Project
As part of The Shake, an exhibition by artist Khaled Barakeh, we hosted a series of community-focused interventions exploring themes of reconciliation. These included thought-provoking conversations and a powerful commissioned dance piece.
Led by dancers Janie Doherty and Rosie Mullan, the Shake Dance Project brought together 11 women—mental health campaigners and individuals with lived experience of the asylum system. Through movement and collaboration, they created a deeply personal and politically resonant performance, which was showcased at two events addressing reconciliation and activism.
“I am blown away. We smashed it. The piece today was epic. Our journey has been wonderful together, and we formed a special, unique, and beautiful bond. I felt something really powerful in the dance. The audience was so close to the action, and I could feel their presence. Truly powerful and an experience I will never forget.” The Shake Dance Project Participant / PPR Mental Health Activist
Art & Activism: Shaping the Future of Northern Ireland
Inspired by the themes of The Shake, we hosted Exploring Art, Activism, and the Future of Northern Ireland in partnership with Create, Ireland’s national development agency for collaborative arts. This gathering brought together 50 artists, activists, and community members from across the island to discuss pressing local, national, and global issues while fostering meaningful connections and networks.
Exploring Art & Reconciliation: A Conversation
In collaboration with Politics in Action and the Social Change Initiative, we facilitated a dialogue on art, activism, and reconciliation, using The Shake as a starting point to reimagine the future of Northern Ireland. This event explored key themes such as shared education and the legacy of the Good Friday Agreement, with participation from notable figures, including Minister for Northern Ireland Fleur Anderson, ACNI Chair Liam Hanaway, and women’s rights advocate Bronagh Hinds.
“The event was refreshing and brave for an arts organisation.” Human Rights Activist
Through these events, we continue to use art as a catalyst for dialogue, healing, and transformation.
Find out more about the project:
Future Garden
Future Garden by Dumbworld co-created with Participation and the Practice of Rights
Multi-media production company Dumbworld collaborated with Participation and the Practice of Rights, people in the asylum system, mental health activists and people living in housing distress. Future Garden asked how the needs & rights of humans for shelter can coexist with our need to care for the planet we live on.
The former Mackies factory site in West Belfast, where an estimated 2,000 children live in housing stress, is to be developed as a greenway with no additional housing provision. Dumbworld & PPR asked “Why can’t we have both housing & environmental protection?” Future Garden is the story of two gardens. The Mackies factory owner’s 12-acre private botanical garden at Helen’s Bay … and a Future Garden which does not exist yet. It is a speculative project of co-curation imagining a future garden for the Mackie's site in Belfast; the plants that could grow here & the ethics of care that could underpin it.
Sam's Eden by Thomas Wells in collaboration with The Rainbow Project
SAM'S EDEN is a new queer arts publication and research project established in 2018 by artist and curator Thomas Wells. The aim of the project is to support and platform new LGBTQIA+ art,writing and activism with a focus on building queer community and spaces both in the physical and non-physical realm.
SAM'S EDEN two commissioned by the MAC in partnership with The Rainbow Project NI developed a series of workshops with facilitators in a range of creative practices including architecture, performance art and mark making to look at queer visibility in cultural spaces. The content of these workshops has been developed into a publication (available to purchase through the MAC box office) documenting the nine-month project as well featuring a newly commissioned work by artist|educators Sara da Costa and Arjen Ploegar.
Thomas would like to thank all participants of the project, full list are included in the publication. Workshop facilitators included; (dw) Dean Black, Array Collective + Janie Doherty, Charlie Beare, Jane Peaker and Emma Brennan, with special thanks to Hannah and Johnny at High Society and Finn Paul as well as the team behind the scenes at the MAC and The Rainbow Project.
2. SAM'S EDEN two - 'Bent Over Straight Lines' by (dw) Dean Black (image credit Thomas Wells)
4. SAM'S EDEN two - 'Hairstory' Portraits by Charlie Beare.
5. SAM'S EDEN two - 'Sounds + Silence' Janie Doherty and Array Collective. Responses to twin life drawing life drawing classes one with a moving subject, dancer Janie Doherty and another with a still body.
6. SAM'S EDEN two - 'Sounds + Silence' Janie Doherty and Array Collective.
Hope is a Thing - Kerrie Hanna in collaboration with Action Mental Health
Northern Ireland has a mental health crisis. Department of Health statistics show a massive 25% higher overall prevalence of mental health problems in Northern Ireland than England. One-in-six young people have an eating disorder and one-in-ten deliberately self-harm. The Department recognises “the powerful contribution that arts and creativity can make to mental health”.
Participants from Action Mental Health collaborated with visual artist Kerrie Hanna to create illustrations provoking hope, creating community as an act of resistance, and exploring feelings of belonging and issues around living with and managing mental health diagnoses. Participant-led discussions centred on the power of acknowledging there is no magic 'happy ending' in life - there is a daily commitment to showing up, to exploring inner worlds, and to the power of artistic expression to move us forward. Kerrie & participants co-designed two images presented on public billboards throughout Belfast during Mental Health Awareness week in May 2023 for 2 weeks.
Weaving the Present, Shaping the Future by Khaled Barakeh in collaboration with Participation and the Practice of Rights, and Anaka Womens Collective
To shed light on the living conditions faced by individuals in the asylum system in Northern Ireland, the MAC Belfast hosted an exclusive performative dinner and socially engaged artistic intervention titled "Weaving the Present, Shaping the Future" created by artist Khaled Barakeh in collaboration with Participation and the Practice of Rights and the Anaka Women's Collective as part of the MACtiviate project "At The Table". The project featured several artistic elements: a curated dinner, AI image-generated photographic works, a socially engaged workshop that resulted in eleven photographs, and a fashion show.
The event was a unique opportunity to examine and discuss the issues faced by people in the asylum system who seek safety in Northern Ireland and highlight the resilience and skills of artists, creatives, designers, teachers, accountants, scientists, mothers, daughters, and brothers who risked their lives for safety. All collaborators involved in the event have fled conflict zones and now live in temporary accommodation run by a private company below basic standards (Mears Group). They receive £9.11 per week to live on, and none have the right to work. They receive second-hand clothes that don't fit their bodies, culture, or personality.
The event was a curated dinner that opened channels among people in the asylum system and stakeholders while having a dinner cooked by professional chefs caught in the asylum system. The guests made pledges to change the system. Speakers included Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission Alyson Kilpatrick, Rt Hon. Lord Mayor Cllr Ryan Murphy, journalist Paul Gosling and activist Twasul Mohammed.
Chosen sentences from the stories of people in the asylum system covered the tablecloth to spark significant discussions. A factsheet outlining the Asylum System was crafted, serving a dual purpose as functional food napkins. To give them financial value, the artist signed these napkins as a limited edition to push people to keep them as a reminder.
Several bodies of work were created throughout the project which were used to lobby for change.
Stitched Stories
Socially engaged workshop, 11 photography works and a fashion show
In partnership with Participation and the Practice of Rights and Anaka Women's Collective, Barakeh collaborated with eleven asylum seekers artists and three local fashion designers in a six-week workshop. Together, they transformed second-hand clothes, personalising them to reflect their individual styles and utilizing them as a powerful medium for self-expression.
Another set of clothing was flattened and stitched together to construct a long passage, which participants used as a catwalk to present their custom-designed outfits to protest their conditions in a fashion show format.
Participants are Ahmed Osama (Sudan), Anfaal Almughallis (Yemen), Asraa al-Tmimi (Yemen), Hind Adnan Ali (Iraq), Mahsa Jahangirpour (Iran), Melav Rahim (Kurdistan), Omima Hasabelrsoul Ahmed (Sudan), Omaia Mortada Abdalla (Sudan), Raha Shafiei (Iran), Seba Barhoum (Syria), Salwa Alsharabi (Yemen).
'A Missing Camera' is a photographic work generated using AI technology, inspired by collected lived experiences and testimonies of individuals caught in the asylum system in Northern Ireland.
This project ventures into uncharted territory, where watershed?critical? moments of people’s narratives are analysed and transformed into visual testimonies. The absence of a camera during these pivotal moments paradoxically becomes the catalyst for their artistic representation, becoming an act of reclamation.
In a world grappling with the implications of image faking and manipulation, 'A Missing Camera' invites contemplation on the potential of AI technology as a vehicle for amplifying marginalised narratives and challenges preconceived notions of truth and authenticity, where actual reality is far more surreal than any fictionalised reality. 'A Missing Camera' transcends the realm of traditional communication and storytelling, forging a new form of visual expression that empowers and elevates the voices of those historically silenced, surpassing cultural, linguistic, and geographical boundaries.
