Community Arts Partnership acknowledges the community engagement of families and supporters, whose loved ones are buried in the Public Baby Plot at Belfast City Cemetery. At a public meeting last Tuesday night, July 4, those gathered were told that their ideas for the design of the physical memorial piece at the Public Baby Plot will be taken into consideration in the further consultative design process provided by Belfast City Council. CAP is relieved that concerns we raised about the process have been taken on board by Belfast City Council and that the pace of the project has been slowed to accommodate a range of issues and concerns.
Between November 2015 and March 2016, CAP undertook the creative public consultation, “All Names Known” to guide this process. This initial process engaged many people, mostly from bereaved families, and provided an indication of the felt sense of what the memorial might entail. This led to Belfast City Council agreeing to support the design and installation of any subsequent memorial. This initial phase of the consultative process was acknowledged by Belfast City Council as “exemplary” when participants were invited to the Lord Mayor’s Parlour, as reported in April.
Although we were unsuccessful in our bid to take this process to fruition, CAP continues to work alongside those engaged in this process, albeit informally, and looks forward to the next steps towards designing how those buried in the Public Baby Plot will be sensitively and inclusively remembered.
