Art Events in Northern Ireland 07/08

NDCS Northern Ireland receive funding from The Arts Council of Northern Ireland to support our Arts Programme.

We organise a wide range of exciting art events across a variety of art forms such as visual art, dance, drama, film, music, animation, circus skills...the list is almost endless and really fun! 

Find out more about previous art events below.

Our annual competition, initially launched by Bob McCullough of the Belfast Telegraph, took the theme of Seasons in 2007. With funding fromThe Arts Council, Split Infinitive Trust and Ulster Garden Villages we were able to produce a colourful calendar to showcase some of the excellent pieces of work! Contact our Arts Officer for your very own calendar arts@ndcs.org.uk

Each year we are able to offer an number of deaf young people a unique opportunity to work alongside BBC Blast to produce a short film. Our film in 2007 funded by First Light Movies was entitled Murder at the Manor.

The storyline was developed by the storyboard submitted by one of the young people, Grainne Murphy. Her idea was to base the story on the boardgame Cluedo, creating a murder mystery but with a modern twist!

Murder at the Manor premiered at Storm Cinemas in the Odyssey complex, Belfast on Saturday 20 October. It was an exciting day as the young people brought their families and friends along to watch Murder at the Manor for the first time.Media representatives and film professionals also attended the screening. The behind the scenes footage was shown, followed by the film and the day came to a close as we presented the young people with a copy of their film.

Murder at the Manor was put forward for Best Horror at the First Light Movies annual Awards Ceremony in London. However... it was selected for the category of BEST FILM by over 13 year olds!!!

The National Deaf Children's Society are delighted with the success of the young people's hard work and dedication to the project and would like to congratulate everyone involved on their achievements to date!

The Awards Ceremony took place in the ODEON, Leicester Square, London on 4 March 2008.

Unfortunately we didn't win our category. However, this has been a tremendous achievement for all the young people involved. Kevin Spacey judged our category and presented the award alongside a huge list of celebrities including Davina McCall who presented the ceremony.

A fantastic experience!

Murder at the Manor has gone on to be screened in several high profile film festivals across the UK and Ireland and also featured on BBC 1 NI.

In support of The Big Draw, the National Campaign for Drawing, NDCS arranged a Doodle Day in Wilton House with the task being "How many doodles can you do!?" Young people came together to create drawings from simple shapes such as circles, squares, traingles etc. A great giggle was enjoyed by all participants as they battle it out to create the most doodles.

Showcase is an exciting event in the NDCS Arts Event Calendar in Northern Ireland. Deaf children and young people, aged 4-18, have the opportunity to take part in workshops through their school that will lead to a performance or piece of artwork for our finale showcase.

In 2007 Showcase focused on fashion design.

A total of 90 deaf children and young people took part in the initial workshop stages of this event. 79 of those involved then attended our finale event at the King's Hall Belfast to model the garments they had made from recycled materials.

During October and November 2007 deaf children and young people were invited to attend a two hour workshop at one of five venues across Northern Ireland. The aim with this format was to allow the children to work with others from different schools and integrate during the initial stages of the project. Four artists were at hand throughout the workshops to inspire the children and help them create their fashion pieces using recycled materials provided by The Play Resource Centre Belfast. The children / young people started with their design page; putting their ideas on paper. They then created their garment following the processes of a fashion designer and refering back to their initial designs throughout. For those who didn't get their pieces finished, follow up workshops were offered in preparation of the finale event.

It was an exciting day at the King's Hall on Wednesday 21 November 2007 as 79 deaf young people, representing 11 schools across Northern Ireland, started arriving to model their garments in the Litter Labels fashion show. The morning was spent backstage rehearsing for the show and getting hair and make up done! We were very lucky to have the expertise of a number professionals in the fashion industry who all gave up their time free of charge to help at the event.  The show started at 1pm and each child / young person had their own time to shine on stage as they proudly modelled their work to an audience of 200 people.  After the show the judges made the very difficult decision of choosing winners and prizes were presented. Thanks to Peter Mark Hairdressers, we also had a number of spot prizes for the audience including eight gift vouchers and a set of GHD hair straightners! The day concluded with visits to our exhibitors' stands who provided a wealth of information for the parents, professionals and children attending the show. These included: ·      Deaf Association of Northern Ireland (DANI) ·      Northern Ireland Deaf Youth Association (NIDYA) ·      Disability Action ·      Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People (NICCY) ·      RNID ·      Deaf Sports Council of Northern Ireland / Belfast Deaf United ·      The Play Resource Centre ·      The National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS)

Some quotes from the event:

·         "The best NDCS event I have ever attended. Well organised. I thought it showed the children in a very positive light." Teacher

·         "I had a wonderful day. It was fun and no homework. I would like to do it again. i looking forward to the showcase on November i can't wait." Participant

·         "It lets deaf children see that they can achieve and it is great for children at mainstream so they can integrate with other deaf children" Parent

·         "The confidence was shining!" Exhibitor at finale event

·         "I thought the show was excellent. Wonderful to see so many deaf kids in the one place using their creative talents. Often deaf kids feel alone and inferior but events like this must boost their confidence a lot." Exhibitor at finale event

Another annual event sees deaf children and their families come together to learn a number of signed songs in BSL. The choir is open to deaf children aged 5+ and their family and friends both deaf and hearing. Many of the participants had never used BSL before and in only 4 weeks were signing the chosen songs fluently.

A final performance was held in Castlecourt Shopping Centre and attracted the attention of the local media which saw us featured on BBC Newsline!

This event is a very powerful and great public performance to raise awareness of deafness and British Sign Language.

The choir also performed for Disability Action by special request at their awards evening for The Centre of Human Rights for Disabled People.