Golden Thread Gallery

One of my favourite galleries in Belfast. It shows a wide range of work from local and international artist. Great for #LateNightArt

When I visited the Golden Thread Gallery it was a hive of busy people the midst of setting up a forthcoming exhibition. Still, they were very welcoming and it’s good to be in a place where there is obviously a lot of collective engagement in creative projects.
Besides the continual programme of exhibitions, the Golden Thread Gallery has over the years been producing an interesting series of books ‘Collective Histories of Northern Irish Art’ which are available from the gallery and online booksellers. Golden Thread is a not for profit organisation but there are works of art for sale as well.
The gallery, which used to be in North Belfast is now a short walk from the Cathedral Quarter and the Art College which helps the area’s development as the city’s artistic hub.

From its beginnings, in 1998, in a former linen mill on a contested ‘peace line’ in North Belfast, Golden Thread Gallery has delivered annual programmes of exhibitions and activities designed to make a real contribution to the visual arts and wider communities in Northern Ireland.
Now located in Belfast’s developing ‘sailor-​town’ area, on the edge of the city centre, the Golden Thread Gallery has grown a unique position in the region by developing programs of contemporary art that reach both local and international audiences.
Golden Thread Gallery has no permanent collection. And instead hold an ongoing series of temporary exhibitions and activities, that provide accessible and thought provoking opportunities to engage with aspects of contemporary artistic practice.
Well worth a look if you’re passing by.

In a city as retrospective as Belfast, it must be difficult for contemporary art to gain a foothold. Thankfully with help from the Lottery and the Northern Ireland arts council, The Golden Thread Gallery has done so. It is a project space for some of Ireland and the U. K’s up and coming contemporary artists.
It has no permanent art which although is unusual for an art gallery, is not so unusual for one of this size. What this ensures is that you can keep returning to it safe in the knowledge that you are going to see something you haven’t seen before. I believe that although the city is becoming more and more commercially successful, it is severally lacking in gallery spaces like this.

I’m not much into the Arts, but this place seems to be doing well. It has no permanent collection, which I’m told is unusual for a gallery.
It focuses very much on contemporary art and performance art (I think that’s what it’s called) and is well known for hosting controversial artists such as Andre Stitt, who’s originally from Belfast.
Interestingly, it’s a charity as well, and is involved in a lot of outreach/​cross-​community projects.