The project will be delivered in partnership with National Museums Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Screen and Northern Ireland Museums Council. Activities will involve writing, casting and directing their own films, working with heritage organisations to create apps and games, and using 3D scanners and printers as well as virtual reality and 3D filmmaking technology. The young people will also be able to work towards achieving an Open College Network (OCN) accreditation.
'Thanks to National Lottery players 4,000 young people from across Northern Ireland will benefit from this exciting project. They will learn a host of new creative media and digital skills while connecting with and reinterpreting the past, and we are delighted to be involved.'
Head of HLF Northern Ireland, Paul Mullan
The money has been awarded through HLF’s new Kick the Dust grant programme which is distributing £10m from the National Lottery to youth organisations across the UK. At its core is a group of young Heritage Ambassadors, who are on a mission to ‘stir up heritage’, and have helped advise on how the money should be allocated. The 17 young people aged 16-25, recruited from across the UK to work with HLF on making heritage more inclusive for people of their age group, advised HLF’s decision panel on the projects they found to be most useful and appealing.
'It has been a brilliant experience learning how grants are awarded, and helping HLF to allocate £10m to projects involving more young people in heritage. I’m thrilled that the Reimagine, Remake, Replay project has won funding, as we found its plan to involve young people in using creative media and digital technology to connect with museums and galleries especially appealing. Making Northern Ireland’s heritage easier to participate in for more people my age is very important to me, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the project progresses in the future.'
Alex Smyth, a Heritage Ambassador from Northern Ireland
'The Nerve Centre and our partners are delighted with this significant level of investment from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Reimagine, Remake, Replay is an ambitious, regional project that will create exciting opportunities for young people to engage with heritage in ways that are relevant to their lives and aspirations.
'Young people will have unique access to the fantastic collections of the Ulster Museum, a range of local museums and the Northern Ireland Screen Digital Film Archive through the project. The partners look forward to developing the project further over the coming months.'
David Lewis, Director of Communications and Digital Content at Nerve Centre