BELFAST BRIEFING:A £5 million refurbishment has turned an old flax mill into a creative hub, writes FRANCESS McDONNELL
ARTIST MELANIE Woolley likes to capture the essence of time in her paintings and where better to seek inspiration than a 169-year-old converted linen mill in Belfast that could become an enduring source of economic regeneration for the city.
Woolley is one of a growing band of artists who inhabit the Conway Mill, previously one of the largest linen manufacturers in west Belfast. Today the Mill, fresh from a £5 million refurbishment programme in recent years, is home to local community, economic and social regeneration groups, small businesses, artists and a museum dedicated to Irish republican history.
The Conway Mill, once a powerful economic player in the local economy, is a symbol of both west Belfast’s economic legacy and its desire to reinvent itself.
The former flax mill on the Falls Road officially closed in 1972 but it is now owned by a registered charity, the Conway Mill Preservation Trust, which primarily aims to “promote and stimulate economic enterprises and job creation”.
Woolley, who takes blank canvases and transforms them into statements about time, may be in the minority compared to other tenants in Studio 15 at the moment, but creative energies like hers are exactly what local community and business leaders are trying to harness.
According to the West Belfast Partnership Board, creative industries are one of the fastest-growing sectors in Northern Ireland. It is estimated more than 36,000 people are employed in the creative industries or in creative occupations. In Belfast alone, over 1,000 creative businesses are registered, and 55 per cent of all creative industries businesses in the North are based in the city.
Geraldine McAteer, chief executive of the West Belfast Partnership Board, believes the city needs to capitalise on local talent to create new economic opportunities.
McAteer says west Belfast in particular has had to “embrace creativity” to overcome the challenges thrown up by the Troubles and more recently the recession. With 25 years of experience in community and economic development, she is adamant “the alchemy is in place” to allow the creative industries to drive the local economy.
“If you look around west Belfast you will see a community that is very creative in its way of thinking. We have a flourishing Gaeltacht quarter – which is a great selling point – and we also have a proud tradition of great musicians, actors, writers and artists of all disciplines coming from this area. What we need to do now is create a focus by developing a hub for creative industries in the city, and I believe that the Conway Mill is the right environment for creative industries to flourish,” McAteer says. She is not alone in seeing the potential the Mill offers.
The West Belfast Partnership Board has hosted a series of creative seminars this year at the Mill that have been enthusiastically supported by established creative high-fliers, such as Northern Ireland-born Greg Maguire, whose work features in the Oscar-winning Avatar, Star Wars and the hit film Happy Feet.
Maguire, who co-founded animation studio Zoogloo and is also a professor of visual communication at the University of Ulster, says Belfast “is perfectly positioned to be a major player in the global creative industry”.
Sinclair Stockman, a former chief scientist of BT and now an independent technology and transformation adviser, has also participated in the seminars. He too believes there is no barrier in place to stop the Conway Mill being reinvented as a creative industry hub.
In Stockman’s opinion, all it would take is the right physical infrastructure to be put in place.
This means the Conway Mill could, in theory, become part of a cluster of digital players in the North that could provide an environment for businesses to take advantage of the new high-capacity, direct telecommunications link to North America and improved connectivity to Europe.
Geraldine McAteer believes that developing a creative hub in the area would deliver economic benefits not just the city but for the whole of Northern Ireland.
“This is about creating real opportunities for the next generation, whether they want to be artists, animators, performers or simply want to set up their own creative businesses. It is about developing world-class industries on our doorstep.
“We are ambitious. We are continually developing and improving facilities, for example a new £15 million enterprise campus, the e3, is just about to be opened by the Belfast Metropolitan College in west Belfast. We can’t waste a minute or an opportunity – we can’t afford to,” says McAteer.
