Ballymena in Northern Ireland is famous for being the town where the actor Liam Neeson was born and the unionist politician Ian Paisley was raised.
Photographs of both of them appear among 200 images of locals that are suspended from the ceiling of the Braid, the £20m museum, arts centre and town hall that opened last year and was among the 10 venues on the longlist for this year's Art Fund Prize.
Spending £20m on a venue in a town with less than 30,000 inhabitants (there are 62,000 across the Ballymena borough) might seem a lot of money, but it shows the ambition of the local council and Mid-Antrim Museums Service, which was set up in 1998 and runs four venues across the region.
The Braid is the service's flagship site and it combines a wide range of facilities and functions. As well as the museum spaces, there is an auditorium that can seat up to 400 and a smaller studio theatre for up to 70.
There is a learning space, meeting room, tourist information, a cafe and the project also included the redevelopment of the adjacent town hall, which carries out a variety of civic functions.
A wide history
Many of the facilities, including the museum, are in a central core behind the three-storey high, glass-fronted atrium. This arrangement does mean that the museum spaces are hidden away, but the designers have tried to get over this by installing a number of references to the collection in the atrium.
Ideas of people and place are introduced through photographs of locals, which are suspended above the names of townlands (a local term for a small unit of land). An imprint of the River Braid on the floor further emphasises the sense of place.
But the main device used in the atrium is a 14-metre high collection wall. This features about 120 graphics representing objects on large blue panels. Visitors can get information about each one by using touchscreens, and at night the chosen panel lights up. They are mostly social history items, reflecting the strength of the collection and the stories the museum wants to tell.
The permanent exhibition space is on the top floor and starts with an introductory space that includes a display called the Distant Past, which looks at pre-history to the Iron Age. An audiovisual featuring local landscapes provides an atmospheric backdrop to the objects, with information about the artefacts in front of this.
The main gallery is dominated by a timeline that runs the length of one wall and contains a variety of local, national and international events. In the centre of the room are the main displays, which combine a chronological and thematic approach.
The first case, Shifting Frontiers: Mid-Antrim 500-1500, covers topics such as landscapes, farming and the church. One side of the display case features a single item, a drinking cup, while on the other side a variety of objects are displayed against a lightbox.
Objects are identified using their outlines, creating a nice link to the collection wall in the atrium. A single event, the Battle of Tawneybrake in 1315, is picked out on the space in the display case that faces the timeline. This approach is used on all the other sections, which tackle areas such as Settlement and Change; Commerce and Industry; Living off the Land; and Politics and Conflict.
The main displays are supported by various interpretive elements, such as touchscreens, film and hands-on activities. The History Gallery was designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA), a New York firm with an office in the UK.
The displays feature RAA's trademark: clear hierarchies of text that work well with the objects and photography. It's an impressive sight when you first enter the gallery, but the clean lines and symmetrical arrangement does make it all feel a bit clinical. This is a large space that could do with having a bit more going on.
The museum's approach to telling the story of Mid-Antrim is one that tries to be inclusive and to reflect some of the complexities of identity. It does not shy away from some of the more difficult areas of history in Northern Ireland, but makes sure that not everything is seen through the prism of religious divisions.
And even when the Troubles are tackled, commonalities are emphasised as well as differences. An example is a touchscreen looking at the role of marching in Northern Ireland, which shows how the paraphernalia of flags, sashes and banners are similar on both sides of the sectarian divide.
Beyond conflict
The final section of the History Gallery, Modern Times, sums up the museum's approach. This audiovisual presentation takes the sinking of the Titanic as its starting point and weaves local, national and international events together through a series of films and photographs shown on 10 screens.
The effect is to place Northern Ireland's recent history in a wider context and highlight some of the identities that are less related to sectarianism, such as the punk movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The museum's temporary exhibitions adopt a similarly inclusive approach and explore some of the diversity of local identity. Making History, which closed in April, was the result of a community history programme across the four areas that the Mid-Antrim Museums Service is responsible for: Ballymena, Carrickfergus, Larne and Newtonabbey.
There were more than 20 community groups involved and the resulting exhibition tells a variety of local history stories. These range from the Ballymena Inter-Ethnic Forum, who looked at the experience of migration, through to a group of men who worked with Carrickfergus YMCA to explore the 1801 Act of Union.
Making History was followed by a People's Choice temporary exhibition, which will run until September. It's not an original idea, but allowing 50 members of the public to choose their favourites objects from the collection is a good way of getting people involved with the museum.
And it is vital this kind of community work is continued, as the Braid is a big venue and needs to have a lot going on to make it feel lively. By continuing to actively engage local audiences the museum can play a big part in making this happen.
Photographs of both of them appear among 200 images of locals that are suspended from the ceiling of the Braid, the £20m museum, arts centre and town hall that opened last year and was among the 10 venues on the longlist for this year's Art Fund Prize.
Spending £20m on a venue in a town with less than 30,000 inhabitants (there are 62,000 across the Ballymena borough) might seem a lot of money, but it shows the ambition of the local council and Mid-Antrim Museums Service, which was set up in 1998 and runs four venues across the region.
The Braid is the service's flagship site and it combines a wide range of facilities and functions. As well as the museum spaces, there is an auditorium that can seat up to 400 and a smaller studio theatre for up to 70.
There is a learning space, meeting room, tourist information, a cafe and the project also included the redevelopment of the adjacent town hall, which carries out a variety of civic functions.
A wide history
Many of the facilities, including the museum, are in a central core behind the three-storey high, glass-fronted atrium. This arrangement does mean that the museum spaces are hidden away, but the designers have tried to get over this by installing a number of references to the collection in the atrium.
Ideas of people and place are introduced through photographs of locals, which are suspended above the names of townlands (a local term for a small unit of land). An imprint of the River Braid on the floor further emphasises the sense of place.
But the main device used in the atrium is a 14-metre high collection wall. This features about 120 graphics representing objects on large blue panels. Visitors can get information about each one by using touchscreens, and at night the chosen panel lights up. They are mostly social history items, reflecting the strength of the collection and the stories the museum wants to tell.
The permanent exhibition space is on the top floor and starts with an introductory space that includes a display called the Distant Past, which looks at pre-history to the Iron Age. An audiovisual featuring local landscapes provides an atmospheric backdrop to the objects, with information about the artefacts in front of this.
The main gallery is dominated by a timeline that runs the length of one wall and contains a variety of local, national and international events. In the centre of the room are the main displays, which combine a chronological and thematic approach.
The first case, Shifting Frontiers: Mid-Antrim 500-1500, covers topics such as landscapes, farming and the church. One side of the display case features a single item, a drinking cup, while on the other side a variety of objects are displayed against a lightbox.
Objects are identified using their outlines, creating a nice link to the collection wall in the atrium. A single event, the Battle of Tawneybrake in 1315, is picked out on the space in the display case that faces the timeline. This approach is used on all the other sections, which tackle areas such as Settlement and Change; Commerce and Industry; Living off the Land; and Politics and Conflict.
The main displays are supported by various interpretive elements, such as touchscreens, film and hands-on activities. The History Gallery was designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA), a New York firm with an office in the UK.
The displays feature RAA's trademark: clear hierarchies of text that work well with the objects and photography. It's an impressive sight when you first enter the gallery, but the clean lines and symmetrical arrangement does make it all feel a bit clinical. This is a large space that could do with having a bit more going on.
The museum's approach to telling the story of Mid-Antrim is one that tries to be inclusive and to reflect some of the complexities of identity. It does not shy away from some of the more difficult areas of history in Northern Ireland, but makes sure that not everything is seen through the prism of religious divisions.
And even when the Troubles are tackled, commonalities are emphasised as well as differences. An example is a touchscreen looking at the role of marching in Northern Ireland, which shows how the paraphernalia of flags, sashes and banners are similar on both sides of the sectarian divide.
Beyond conflict
The final section of the History Gallery, Modern Times, sums up the museum's approach. This audiovisual presentation takes the sinking of the Titanic as its starting point and weaves local, national and international events together through a series of films and photographs shown on 10 screens.
The effect is to place Northern Ireland's recent history in a wider context and highlight some of the identities that are less related to sectarianism, such as the punk movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The museum's temporary exhibitions adopt a similarly inclusive approach and explore some of the diversity of local identity. Making History, which closed in April, was the result of a community history programme across the four areas that the Mid-Antrim Museums Service is responsible for: Ballymena, Carrickfergus, Larne and Newtonabbey.
There were more than 20 community groups involved and the resulting exhibition tells a variety of local history stories. These range from the Ballymena Inter-Ethnic Forum, who looked at the experience of migration, through to a group of men who worked with Carrickfergus YMCA to explore the 1801 Act of Union.
Making History was followed by a People's Choice temporary exhibition, which will run until September. It's not an original idea, but allowing 50 members of the public to choose their favourites objects from the collection is a good way of getting people involved with the museum.
And it is vital this kind of community work is continued, as the Braid is a big venue and needs to have a lot going on to make it feel lively. By continuing to actively engage local audiences the museum can play a big part in making this happen.
Project data
Cost: £20m
Main funders: Ballymena Borough Council £10m, Heritage Lottery Fund £4.4m, Arts Council for Northern Ireland £2m
Exhibition design: Ralph Appelbaum Associates
Architect: Consarc
Software: ISO Design
Display cases: Armour Systems
Cost: £20m
Main funders: Ballymena Borough Council £10m, Heritage Lottery Fund £4.4m, Arts Council for Northern Ireland £2m
Exhibition design: Ralph Appelbaum Associates
Architect: Consarc
Software: ISO Design
Display cases: Armour Systems
