: the city of the hidden inspiring stories Heba Khairy, Curator, Grand Egyptian Museum (ITP 2017)

My sweet November this year started with ITP legacy, because as an ITP fellow 2017 I got the chance to see and experience a new city with its interesting culture, hidden history stories and the MA conference, which was held in the city of Belfast.

It was my first visit to the city. What is interesting about Belfast is that we experienced, gained knowledge and learnt a lot about the city through our visits to its museums. Our visit to the Museum with its outstanding permanent exhibition and Beyond gave us a huge platform about the political history of Belfast and the community, while the open-air Ulster Folk Museum provided us with a good understanding of the city lifestyle long ago: walking through the copied streets of the city with its original and replica houses, costumed local people and traditional handcrafts workshops took us back in time 100 years ago. While our visit to the Ulster Transport Museum and the Experience took us on a voyage to the history of transportation and the exceptional industrial history of Belfast.

The welcome gallery, Ulster Museum

Industrial Belfast gallery, Titanic Experience Belfast is the capital and the largest city of , UK. It is located on the banks of the on the east coast of Ireland. In the early 17th century, Belfast was a major port of Northern Ireland. It played a major role in the Industrial Revolution in Europe, becoming the biggest linen producer in the world, earning its nickname "Linenopolis" in 1888. It became a major centre of Irish linen production, tobacco production and rope-making. Shipbuilding was also a major industry, with the well-known shipyard and company, where the famous Titanic was built. Industrialisation and the afterwards migration to Belfast made it one of Ireland’s biggest cities and the capital of Northern Ireland.

The Titanic Experience.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Belfast suffered greatly in the political civil conflict, which is known as the “Troubles” that ranged from around 1969 to 1998 between Catholic and Protestant populations. These two groups of the conflict are now often known as Republican and Loyalist.

In April 1998, the two groups signed the . Recently, Belfast is one of the most peaceful and safe cities around the world. I experienced that by myself, where I enjoyed and loved the kindness and generosity of the people.

The Troubles Gallery, Ulster Museum

Belfast is a city with very exceptional museums. As a museum professional, I must say that the quality of Belfast museums is impeccable, and the displays of Ulster Museum are one of the finest, allowing the visitors to access accurate information interpreted from all the collections. Rooms with "touchable" objects, inventories and books were very appealing for children and adults. The collection itself is very rich and varied, from archaeological objects and fine art paintings to natural history objects, models, anthropology and geology. This gave the local and international visitors an overall knowledge not only about Belfast stories and local history but also about the other side of the world. It was overwhelming to experience a museum curate about an unforgettable local conflict, the Troubles, which still has its emotional and social effects on the local people, in a way that made me emotionally and mentally engaged with the gallery narratives and display interactions. Personally, I consider it one of the most successful examples of how museums can succeed in reflecting societies, change society in a positive manner and better help the locals to accept the past.

The Ulster Folk and Transport Museum I consider a very unique example of how museums can exhibit and conserve the rural local heritage which was under threat of disappearing, and how museums can transport you back in time to revive and illustrate lives, traditions and crafts of those who worked, worshiped and occupied a city more than 100 years ago. Also how museums can change the locals’ lives by hiring them as skilled interpreters for their heritage, traditions and local crafts.

Ulster Folk Museum, first person interpreters - housewife and doctor

From the first moment you arrive in Belfast, your eyes and attention will be taken by the colourful graffiti on every road and corner within the city, which made me very curious to know the stories behind them. The Troubles Taxi Tour gave us a better understanding and appreciation of how human creativity of the local residents has been used to document the lives of both sides of the conflict on every inch of the peace wall, and how they used their memories and solidarity as makeup for their buildings.

Belfast Peace Wall

Dissent: Inspiring hope, embracing change- having the courage to challenge traditional thinking to transform museums and society, was the theme of the MA Conference this year. Personally, I see Belfast as the most suitable city which can host such a sensitive and special conference theme.

The conference exhibited and hosted many practical seminars and sessions presented by heritage and museum professionals, who came from all over the globe to share and present their successful projects and experiences, of how their museums and institutions engaged and interacted with their communities, how their museums transformed people’s lives, and how their museums act as dissenting institutions and as inspiring cultural places to promote positive social change.

The dissent theme gave us a great platform for the radical, creative and ambitious ideas that can change the core and face of our museums. The conference inspired us on how to move our museums to a next, different level of change, being engaging and creative.

The Belfast conference was a great opportunity for networking with museum professionals from different backgrounds, opening a huge gate to communicate, exchange ideas and experiences about our upcoming projects. It was an inspiring event for positive change on how to accept and respect everyone’s dissent story, difference and culture.

Finally, I would like to express my deep gratitude to The Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust for giving me and my colleagues this great chance to experience such a new exceptional city and culture, the fruitful chance to network, communicate and build new inspiring relationships with other museums and professionals. I would like to express my deep appreciation to Louise Smyth, Hannah Crowdy and everyone who welcomed us and give us a precious experience and knowledge inside the National Museums Northern Ireland (NMNI). Also, my gratitude, love and appreciation go to the wonderful ITP team, Claire, Becca and Jessica, thanks a million for the well-organised trips, and thanks for making our time together very fruitful, enjoyable, useful and unforgettable.