Men from Derry's Men's Shed take part in major exhibition

Curated by five community groups from Belfast and Derry ‘First Choice,’ has opened in the Belfast Room at the museum.

Members of Derry Men’s Shed took park in the three-month project.

Each group was assigned a particular museum or library, where they were given behind-the-scenes access to our collections, specialist staff and working processes. They were asked to choose three objects from the collections that they would like to be photographed with to include in this touring exhibition.

One of the exhibition highlights includes men from Derry connecting with a bottle from W.G. O’Doherty’s spirit grocers, a shop originally in their home city.

Part of an ongoing collaboration between National Museums Northern Ireland, Libraries NI and the Urban Villages Initiative which is a key action within the Northern Ireland Executive’s ‘Together: Building a United Community’ Strategy, the exhibition is the culmination of a new project providing increased access to public collections.

Hannah Crowdy, Interpretation Manager at National Museums Northern Ireland, said, “At the heart of this collaboration was the desire to give these groups the opportunity to learn new skills and develop a greater voice in their community. We - the facilitators – feel incredibly proud of the groups and what they’ve achieved during the project. Each individual involved has been fantastic and we hope they have benefitted as much from this as the facilitators have.”

After its launch at the Ulster Museum, the exhibition will tour to libraries across Northern Ireland, starting with those that are in or in close proximity to the five Urban Villages.

The exhibition runs until Sunday coming and admission is free.