We’ve awarded Belfast City Council £250,000 to bring to life projects exploring and preserving culture and heritage as part of Belfast 2024.

From green spaces, waterways and alleys, to film, textiles and light art, these projects are rooted in the city’s story and aim to get people involved, inspire creativity, build knowledge and civic pride.

Creating memories to last a lifetime

Water Works is Belfast's biggest boat building experiment. The project will explore maritime traditions with citywide events, workshops, and aims to build 10,000 boats with the community using traditional methods. The boats will parade down the River Lagan in August to celebrate the role of waterways in and around Belfast.

Niamh Scullion, who is leading a 90-strong team of volunteers to build a 22-foot skiff using traditional methods, said: "It's great to be able to go through this boat building process with such an enthusiastic crew of volunteers, learning new woodworking skills from each other every day. There's a lovely feeling of achieving something beautiful together, and a growing excitement that, later this summer, we'll be able to row down the Lagan and out to the open sea.

"It's a rare opportunity to do something we'll be able to remember and tell stories about for years to come."

Our Future Heritage 

The other nine projects we've funded to bring a buzz to Belfast throughout the year are:

• 9ft In Common: A Manifesto for the Alleys is a city-wide collaborative celebration of the creative potential of Belfast’s alleyways

• citizen-science project Safari in the City is helping people explore their city's biodiversity through events, walks and art installations

• Show Some Love Green House is using textile art and sustainable fashion to bring people together through teaching traditional skills

• ROOTS is transforming part of the shared but contested peace wall at Black Mountain Shared Space with a community garden, dance, poetry and storytelling

• Shadowdock is using light, shadow, colour and sound to showcase the heritage of Thompson Dry Dock

• Sound Links is exploring the often overlooked rich history of Townsend Street in west Belfast

• The Hearth is bringing filmmakers and residents together to co-create a new film about life in Belfast

• inspired by Fredrick Douglass’ time in Belfast in 1845, North Star is exploring belonging through the lens of contemporary Black culture

• Are You On The Bus? is exploring Belfast’s queer pasts, presents, and possible futures 

Get involved this spring and summer 

Visit the Belfast 2024 website to explore the year’s events and get involved, from boat-building workshops and nature walks to submitting a video of your Belfast story.