The new Belfast school of art is just a day away from opening its gates allowing the public a look at the new work of Northern Ireland’s up and coming artists, animators, architects, designers, photographers and illustrators. 

It will be the first year of the new building and I look forward to seeing how the fresh space has effected the next cohort of creators. For me, I feel it would have been a mix of getting used to a new space and going through all the ‘new build bumps.’ Just as you expect a brand new phone to have hiccups, the same could be expected of a new building which houses people with the desire to create, it will be interesting to hear first hand how the experiences of this change affected the artists themselves . Everyone loves to get new stuff and peel off the plastic that comes with it, I think this year of graduates had that unique opportunity, the first year of the new building experiencing the excitement, the pressure, the awe of this new space and how the public will receive it. 

Like Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory, the excitement of getting in to see everything that has been going on for the last year has been building. It will be a great evening and memorable for those graduating as I believe the crowds attending will be larger than already successful years, the degree show itself is set to be reinvigorated. It would do well to remember the ‘art college’ will transition through another turbulent phase once again when the amalgamation of the Jordanstown and Belfast campuses are complete in 2018. Thousands more students will swamp the campus and creative students will indeed become the minority. The dynamic will shift and there will be no art college to speak of, not as it is now anyway. That is however another blog entirely, and of course years from now.

Although, I look at how the year has gone by and how the old Orpheus building was treated. This building is where I graduated from, this amazing place I spent several years of my life growing up, working all hours of the night, partying all hours of the morning, making mistakes as an artist and as a person, making great memories, having fun and making a load of friends. This building holds these memories for a lot of people and when the Orpheus was going to be knocked down, it disappointed a lot of people. 

I had mixed feelings, It was all of those things for me but also I could see how a new building could be needed also. But how they have torn it down. Horrible, instead of taking it down in one swoop it got dragged out, which I followed as I thought it needed to be documented, a major change in Belfast city centre was about to happen and I thought it deserved preserving in some way. The building was stripped of all its former glory as it hung on while having its insides ripped out and shown to the world, instead of just taking it away and leaving people with how they remember it I feel it changed the viewpoint of some people.

I look forward to the new building and what creative minds emerge from it into Northern Ireland, this talent is needed to help develop and shape the creative industries here in the North, and we badly need it.

More images of the Orpheus building here.

Removal of the link

ripped open

ceramics fills the ceramics department

one of two machines used to tear the building down

A veiw inside of the steps I use to walk