Could you tell us a little about your background?
I am based in Belfast but I’m a blow-in. I’m originally from a small village down the Ards Peninsula called Portaferry. I came to Belfast originally to study Fine Art and I did a Masters in Arts Management. I have been working in the wider realms of the arts sector since then.
In the early days I organised gigs, club nights, I was a music photographer for a while, and I worked in galleries and things like that. I was very much behind the scenes.
I worked for 13 years for an organisation called PLACE, Northern Ireland’s Architecture Centre. That was a pivotal point for me, because it is the legacy of PLACE which is why I am doing what I am doing now.
Why is that?
PLACE closed after almost 15 years because of funding constraints and at the time the rage of that closure made me want to carry on doing similar things to those we did at PLACE. I think I had the attitude that just because PLACE is going away doesn’t mean that I have to or the kind of work which PLACE did had to disappear.
PLACE was all about architecture and the built environment. We worked on public programming, organising a lot of exhibitions, workshops, many participatory events. We also worked on campaigns which involved the general public in looking at architecture and the built environment. I worked with a lot of architects as well.
What do you do now?
After PLACE closed, I set up my own company, Starling Start, and the ethos behind the company is that of collaborative working, equality, using co-design principles and working towards creative place-making. On all the projects I work on those key principles are built into each project. I believe that everyone who sits down at the table is equal.
Over the past five years I have been working on a range of projects across Northern Ireland and more recently in the south of Ireland. I work with lots of local authorities on arts and cultural research projects. They generally involve a similar kind of process where I do lots of interviews, lots of engagement and desk research, and I pull that information together in a relatable format, or narrative, for people to work from. I also work on strategic plans and action plans.
To follow up on the work of Amberlea Neely see the links below
