From Arts Council of Northern Ireland, 19 November 2024.
Queen Street in Belfast City Centre has undergone a significant transformation in recent months, most notably with the opening of a landmark new arts gallery for Golden Thread Gallery at the former Gas Corporation Showroom and Craftworld building.
Annually funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, through the National Lottery, the new venue marks an exciting chapter in Golden Thread’s development and for contemporary visual arts in Belfast. As the National Lottery today celebrates its 30th birthday, the reopening of Golden Thread Gallery reflects the impact that money raised for good causes has had on the arts infrastructure in Northern Ireland.
Set across two floors, the new premises include two large galleries, a projection room, a Community Participation & Engagement Hub, and Northern Ireland’s first visual art library and archive. Entry to the gallery is free and open to all. Sympathetically restored throughout, by Dickson Fitzgerald Architects for Leja Properties, the 1871 building has retained many of the original features whilst creating a gallery space which has the capability of hosting world-class international exhibitions.
Co-Director Sarah McAvera reflected on the evolution of the gallery, saying: “We’re delighted that the gallery is now in the heart of Belfast city centre, in a location where we can not only welcome back our existing audiences but be more easily discovered by new visitors. The Arts Council of Northern Ireland and National Lottery funding have been essential to the growth of the gallery. With their help we have evolved from a small artist-run gallery to being an award-winning audience-led space that attracts people from across the city and beyond.”
Currently on display, from now until 27th November, is an exhibition of work from internationally acclaimed artist Claire Morgan, specially commissioned in 2024 with the support of a National Lottery Arts Council of Northern Ireland Commissioning Grant. Originally from Belfast, Claire’s work raises fundamental questions about the role of humans and their relationship to nature. Complex three-dimensional forms made from artificial and natural materials are a frequently recurring motif in her work. By using taxidermy, waste materials, dead animals, sculptural wax figures and human hair, the exhibition offers audiences a unique and haunting gallery experience, with a focus on themes including grief, loss, personal or collective trauma and climate catastrophe.
Joanna Johnston, Visual Arts Officer, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, commented: “Golden Thread Gallery is a visual arts space for the city of Belfast, which connects us all to great contemporary art. In its 22-year history, Golden Thread Gallery has demonstrated the transformative power of National Lottery funding, in so many different ways. From the great work they have commissioned and exhibited, to the fantastic programme of education and outreach activities they offer, this has all been made possible thanks to sustained public investment and support from the National Lottery and money raised for good causes.”
Co-director Peter Richards shared some highlights from the gallery’s upcoming programme. “Over the next year audiences can expect to see internationally renowned artists Shirin Neshat, Susan Hiller, Marie Fusco, Margaret Salmon and John Rainey. Thanks to the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, we will be presenting Sophie Calle as our 2025 summer show. Running alongside our exhibitions will be multiple opportunities for participation and engagement.”
About Golden Thread Gallery (GTG)
Founded in 1998 on the Crumlin Road in Belfast, Golden Thread Gallery is a contemporary visual art gallery and arts charity. Their mission statement is “Creating a context, challenging perceptions, promoting creativity, delivering contemporary visual art for all”. Their purpose is to broaden access to and improve public experience of visual art in Northern Ireland, by presenting exciting exhibition programmes and supporting Northern Irish artists. They strive to be an accessible destination where each and every visitor is engaged, educated, challenged, and inspired by visual art.
In addition to the gallery spaces, the new premises include:
A Community Participation & Engagement Hub. This welcoming and creative space is open to all. Programming will include workshops, events, artist talks and community group activities. It includes a Free Library, play area and a Junior Gallery space. The Hub has been made possible thanks to funding support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Art Fund.
The NI Visual Art Library & Archive is Northern Ireland’s first dedicated visual art research library open to the public. Thanks to funding support from Ampersand Foundation, this resource will make hundreds of rare art books, reference materials and exhibition catalogues available to researchers, students, and visitors.
The new gallery is an accessible venue with step-free street access, lift to the first floor, a wheelchair-accessible ground-floor bathroom, sensory guide to exhibitions and large-print versions of all gallery texts available. The library and archive room on the ground floor offers wheelchair accessible workspaces, adjustable seating, magnification aids for people with vision impairment and reading aids for people with dyslexia.
Claire Morgan
Claire Morgan is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans sculpture, drawing, writing, printmaking and installation. She explores the complex, often dysfunctional relationships between humans and other species, addressing trauma, grief, memory, and the powerful transformative potential that exists in vulnerability. Solo shows include I only dared to touch you once I knew that you were dead, Galerie Karsten Greve, (Cologne and Paris, 2023), Joy in the Pain, Saarlandmuseum Moderne Galerie (Saarbrücken, 2021), As I Live and Breathe, The Horniman Museum (London, 2019), Stop Me Feeling, Frist Art Museum (Nashville, 2017). Morgan was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Sculptors in 2024. She was awarded a Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant in 2022, and the 12th Fondation Guerlain Drawing Prize in 2019. Works are in collections worldwide including Centre Georges Pompidou, Fondation Guerlain, and MONA.
About National Lottery funding for the arts in Northern Ireland
Thirty years on from the first National Lottery draw in November 1994, there is now an arts building within 20 miles of everyone living in Northern Ireland. National Lottery players raise £30 million every week for good causes across the UK, which is allocated across the fields of sport, heritage, community and arts. For Northern Ireland, three decades of investment of National Lottery funding has been a real game changer, helping people across the country connect with the arts, funding thousands of projects in urban and rural locations and provided thousands of ways to access and participate in the arts.
Since it launched in 1994, more than £217 million of National Lottery money has been invested in 9,680 Northern Ireland based arts projects by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
