The Myth and Legends art course by the Shankill Women’s Centre in West Belfast encouraged women to explore and connect with the myths and legends of Northern Ireland, as well as their own lives.
Inspired by the emotive stories of women in the Pieces of the Past archival project, a collection of oral histories through the Troubles, the participants created their own paintings to tell their stories.
Throughout the course, the participants picked different elements of murals to explore such as landscapes and nature, language and slang, song lyrics and more. By the end of the course, the participants created murals to reflect Belfast and their own stories.
Joan Mercer, Project Manager, said: “The course was incredibly empowering for the women in the Centre. It was an opportunity for women of all ages and all areas to come together to connect through art and take time out to focus on themselves. We received a lot of positive feedback from the participants and heard a lot of laughter from the group.”
In addition to the participants’ paintings, facilitator and artist Aoife Burns created a final piece, entitled She Just, with elements from each participant’s mural to portray “what a woman looks like living in Northern Ireland.”
Aoife said: “I knew I wanted a bit of each of woman in the final painting. It was their work that inspired me.”
The image of a hummingbird was also incorporated into the piece because it is the symbol of the Shankill Women’s Centre. The Hummingbird was the original location of the centre when it opened in 1987 and has remained a symbol of women empowerment since.
The Myths and Legends art course was run as part of the organisation’s Women in Transition project, which was funded by The Executive Office (TEO) through its Central Good Relations Fund.